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On 21 December 2010 the Hungarian Parliament adopted Act CLXXXV of 2010 on Media Services and Mass Media (Media Act). The new Act replaces Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television Broadcasting and Act II of 1986 on the Press. By adopting the new Media Act the Hungarian Parliament has completed the fundamental reform of the Hungarian media regulation (see IRIS 2010-8/34 and IRIS 2011-1/37). The main issues and features of the Media Act are as follows: - The Act implements the European Directive on Audiovisual Media Services. In line with the Directive it loosens advertising rules to a certain extent...

On 17 January 2011 Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, addressed the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee in an extraordinary meeting on the state of play of the Commission’s examination of the recently adopted Hungarian Media Law (see IRIS 2011-2/30). Concerns have been raised regarding the compliance of the new rules with the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, as well as, more generally, their respect for fundamental media freedoms, such as freedom of expression. Commissioner Kroes pointed...

On 2 November 2010 the Hungarian Parliament adopted Act CIV of 2010 on Freedom of Expression and on the Basic Rules of Media Content. This new piece of legislation is also dubbed as “Media Constitution” by its introducers, reflecting its fundamental nature. The promulgation of the Act was preceded earlier in the summer by an amendment of the Constitution relevant to the media and by the creation of the Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság (National Media and Communications Authority - NMHH) as a new “converged” regulatory authority (see IRIS 2010-8/34). The scope of the new Act covers a variety...

On 29 July 2010, Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, presented the regular report to the OSCE Permanent Council, the organisation’s main decision-making body. The report consists of overviews of issues raised in the participating countries, activities of the Representative in the last period and planned activities for the next reporting period. A large part of the report consists of the analysis of issues raised in 26 of the OSCE participating states. In the last period the Representative had to deal with several issues concerning media freedom, such as media pluralism,...

Following the general elections in spring the newly formed Hungarian Parliament has begun to reshape the legislative framework for the media. As its first step the Constitution was amended in early July. The amendment defines the role of public service media (which is to contribute “to preserving the national and European identity, to preserving and enriching Hungarian and minority languages, to strengthening national cohesion and to fulfilling the needs of national, ethnic, religious communities and of the family”). Beyond this broad remit a new provision of the Constitution also defines the basic...