Defending media pluralism in Hungary*
Thursday, January 5th, 2012
A magyar szöveg – itt (PDF itt). For Hungarian text – read here.
(*Please feel free to reproduce this post in part or in full for your own website or publication, with attribution of the author)
Over recent weeks serious questions have been asked by the European Commission about 30 new laws in Hungary, including a major constitutional revision, and these concerns continue. These laws have passed against the backdrop of a media law adopted in late 2010, which was found by the European Commission to put fundamental rights at risk, and by the Hungarian courts to breach the Hungarian constitution.
The European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights clearly states that “the freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected,” and the EU has always stood up for media freedom and pluralism. Both the European Commission and I have defended press freedom and fundamental rights from the outset of the intense debate in Hungary over a year ago.
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