Meeting T. Jagland in Davos
On Wednesday I promised to keep you updated on my meeting today in Davos with Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
As I expected, it was a very fruitful meeting. We discussed the developments regarding media freedom in Hungary after last years’ intervention by the European Commission , the critical report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Hammarberg and the ruling by the Constitutional Court last December.
We agreed that Hungary needs to act quickly to reassure all those who have concerns, to show that it is serious about protecting freedom of expression and media pluralism.
Mr. Jagland confirmed to me that the Council of Europe is ready to play its role and to prepare a comprehensive opinion on the media legislation and its application in practice – if or when Hungary would request such an assessment.
But of course that would just be a first step. The most important thing would be that the authorities would commit to accept and implement any concrete recommendations that would be made by the Council of Europe, which has been setting standards for fundamental rights protection in Europe for over half a century!
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Tags: Council of Europe, davos, fundamental values, hungary, media freedom, Media pluralism
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Dear Mr. Kroes!
Here in Hungary is no problem with the freedom of speech. Just few idiots try to convince you about this. Could you be so kind and leave Hungary to live, and let Mr. Orban to do what he thing right?
This is our country, our business.
Live us alone!
regards
Kis Mihaly
Mr. Orbán should leave the media alone. The EU does the right thing standing up for the common values and principles.
Idiots or not, Hungarians have the right to learn the truth about their own country and Mr. Orbán is denying that right from them.
As an expat Hungarian living in the UK at the moment I’d like to sincerely thank you Neelie for not letting this slip! I think making sure that the values which benefit the wider society are not swept away is something the EU can and should enforce from the highest possible levels. The irony of this is while the EU Commission gets its members by appointment and the Hungarian government is democratically elected, it’s still the Commission which protects real democratic values, so thanks again for the laudable integrity in this matter!
You who left your own home country for better pay and not paying a penny should remain in silent!
The comission doesnt protect any democratic values, you are brainwashed. The EU is a dictatorial organization taking away (step by step) the power of elected national governments and the soverignity and self governance of the member sates and give these powers to unelected brussels burocrats that are put in place by financial institutions and multinationals. The whole EU is just a financial organization that keeps the interests of their financial supporters (owners) above and against the interests of its population that have less and less say and human rights to govern itself against this money machine. They are converting the EU into a new dictatorship similar to the Soviet Union. They deliberately destroyed production in central europe and tricked the population into debt slavery. By these, they can control any country. This is a new kind of warfare, colonization. That is what the WEST bought to us , Hungarians. If you have no production and you are under heavy debt you can not be independent. They have a reason behind their every move and sell it with bullshit slogans about freedom and democracy. Wake UP! The slogens about Democratic values for them are the protection of those institutions, political parties they control and that are faithfully following their orders. Because of the deceitful mass media coverages -owned by the mentioned financial elit- the people are so brainwashed and deceived at the present about waht is really going on that they dont even see that they are giving away the power to conduct their life freely.