A fine way to kick off an EU presidency

Hungary is far from ideal, but it is a democracy and freedom of the press exists(newspapers are full of critism of the goverment). The media law is little understood and there are many false information circling around especially in the fogrein press. Now that it is translated opponents should read it first before attacking it: http://www.kim.gov.hu/misc/letoltheto/media_law_04012011.pdf

Till the Benes decreets is still in effect in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic and ethnic Germans and Hungarians are "de iure" war criminals even today because of their nationality, the hypocrite EU "democracy warriors" had better to shut up.
(personally i disagree with the media law but this eu hypocricy is far more disgusting)

Zoli
Budapest

You are not correct: the Socialist/Liberal Democrats coalition had the majority to change the constitution between 1994-1998, but they didn't do it because they wanted national consensus (or perhaps because they were the successor of the communist party and their consience didn't let them to change it...:)).

My opinion is that the biggest problem with our media law is not that that it gives too much power to institutions which are close to the governing parties. (However it is a problem: the rules are ambiguous. They can be used against "enemies".) The problem is our history: we don't have long democratic past except the last 21 years.
We don't really understand what freedom, responsibility, balance mean. Fidesz thinks that the balance of power is nothing but a barrier against their plans (at least it seems, see Constitutional Court). Freedom and responsibility IS Hungarian, NOT socialist, conservative, liberal or else. Hungarian citizens didn't have the chance to fight for their own freedom (like the English and French fought against their monarchy). We always had to fight against foreign powers (Ottomans, Habsburgs, Russians) and for the freedom of Hungary.

Partly because of this past, if you have the power in Hungary which you can use against your "enemies" , you usually use it. E.g.: the Horthy regime or the communists were quite good at this . It is hard to believe that Fidesz won't do the same, seeing their "revolution" and methods. It is unimaginable that David Cameron closes the Guardian just because it writes something bad about him. It's a possibility in Hungary.

Of course there are a lot of people who understand freedom in my country, but they are a minority and they always were. And they feel uneasy: they can easily become "jews" or "non-true-hungarians" just because of their opinion. Check the newspapers on the right.

so ...
can someone explain me what this article is all about?
all I can gather is that author holds some grudge against something,
... or was he/she was told to write "against piece" and failed to find proper arguments to support it.
What a piece of editorial kludge.

All will be better served if an article analyzing the new Hungarian Media Law is written.

It looks like gossiping when something is criticized without even taking the time to discuss the issues behind it...

I still say it's like Seinfeld.

"It's a club about nothing."

Regards

Prime Minister Orban hints that the media law would be changed if the EU requested it:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE7051OY20110106

Although probably these are just empty words to make the international media attention go away for a while.

rncom
"Of course there are a lot of people who understand freedom in my country, but they are a minority and they always were. And they feel uneasy: they can easily become "jews" or "non-true-hungarians" just because of their opinion. Check the newspapers on the right."

well , theoretically that is what the new media law good for. and no, it is not possible to "close" critical newspapers. at least not according to the media law.
otherwise I share your fears, that balance does not belong to the vocabulary of Mr Orban. Just like it never belonged to that of the "Socialist/Liberal Democrats" coalition. "national consensus" :) you must kidding

what will be the Orban's Role for the next six month in EU ?
I don't expect that he'll had anything of importance to achieve, apart inaugurating the chrysanthemums, since the pression is still on te eurozone and the focus on regulting fincances, ie G20...

good luck if Orban can manage to be heard

Didn't France deport large amounts of gypsies recently? Was that very democratic? Even a few weeks ago we could read articles such as

"France remains worried about potential inflows of Roma gypsies from Romania and Bulgaria if borders were to be fully opened..."

Romania and Bulgaria was overjoyed I am sure. It seems there are bigger threats to democracy as Hungarian TV-s not being allowed to broadcast pornographic content at 8PM as they do now under the guise of it's only a "reality show".

This is whole upheaval is rooted in a Hungarian domestic political problem, the kind that is foreign to Western political experience.

The so-called peaceful transition after the fall of Communism never really happened Hungary. The Communist party changed its name-only and carried on as before. Not only the Communist party remained intact, but also the whole government bureaucracy (not the elected representatives) at all levels of government. Even if another party/government came to power, the bureaucrats, including the majority of the media people, who were trusted supporters of the Communist regime, all remained in place and the incoming government had to work in an alien/partisan environment.

This is unheard of in Western democracies. The bureaucrats are not ideologically motivated; they are there to serve the government of the day.

In the last elections, after eight atrocious years in government (after bringing the country to the brink of economic, political and moral collapse - publicly acknowledged that they have lied day and night to win their second term in office), the Socialists (Communists) and their allies, the Social Democrats were obliterated in a, by all account, free and fair election. Fidesz and its coalition partner won two-third majority. They immediately started with major reforms. Six months later, in the municipal elections the governing coalition repeated its previous success. According to recent opinion polls, the government’s popularity in Hungary is still holding pretty much at election levels.

The obliterated opposition parties are at the brink of collapse. They know that they cannot win their battle in the parliament by democratic means, so they enlisted their sympathisers from abroad and the members of the foreign media by feeding them distorted information both about the intentions of the government and about the new media law.

Even here, some contributors from Hungary keep saying: we cannot trust the government, we don’t know what they might do… etc. In a Western democracy, a person is innocent until proven guilty. According to the good old Communist methodology it is just the opposite: you have to prove your innocence. So, surprise, surprise, the opposition supporters keep saying: “this guy is capable of anything. Tomorrow he will wake up as a dictator… we just never know. He might be a great danger to European democracy … therefore, we must get rid of him.” And, of course, the West is happy to oblige. They don’t know anything about him yet, but they oblige. He did not start wars (like Britain and the US, he did not throw out hundreds of Roma from Hungary, like France did … but we should be afraid of him! But … his actual guilt is only that he won fair and square a national and a municipal election and got two-thirds majority!

Members of the Western media failed terribly in reporting on this issue:
- In an unprofessional manner, they relied on partisan hearsay instead of hard facts.
- Even if unintentionally, they allowed themselves to be drawn into a domestic political struggle.
- By doing so, they undermine a democratically elected government and endanger democracy in a sovereign state.

The question remains to be asked: Who is the media accountable to in these kinds of situations?

I would still say the PM has some responsibility about the current problems of the country.
1. In 2002 he started to create an own world of him and his followers with shared beliefs, emotional ties, particular news sources, and through this, a different view of reality and no critical sense at all (see HirTV and ANY report, sorry.)
2. He took national symbols away from the non-follower Hungarians - see his sentence after Fidesz won the Budapest mayor's post "Hungarians got back their capital city".
3. The checks and balances are taken out of the system, it is however true that you don't feel it in everyday life, except those having been fired from a public sector position...
But I think the first one is the worst, and if you check the comments below ANY political article, you can see what I mean.
I am not sure how this turns out, he must have some plan, there are some positives in economy, but we have little space. Well, the people wanted order and this is all he's making...
It's an all-out-attack, but you get the feeling that you can only be on one side OR the other.

Sorry Francophiles but this is just French arrogance right here. If this was reversed and it was Hungary calling on France to modify a media law, you can be sure that the French would be up in arms that an Eastern European country dare tell them what to do.

The journalist Alain Genestar of Paris Match sacked in August 2005 for revelations that could have jeopardized the election of Sarkozy,two journalists of the Journal du Dimanche sacked for revelations on Sarkozy and Carla in April 2010,the censure on Canal plus.Hungary is a small copy of the sarkozist France.

The unwillingness of the EU to censure Berlusconi has created a precedent/lesson across Europe...
Sooner or later something must be done about Mediaset.

jeffzLondon: Spot on, you hit the nail on the head. Mr. Orban has stepped on the toes of quite a few moneycrats and now he's being beaten with a big media stick. This piece is part of that.

Mahuba, yes, they translated it, leaving out the critical parts, like the NMHH can use the punishments only after the end of the presidency (to avoid the attention to the country during the 6 months), and so on. Edited translation lol.

From Hitler and Stalin to Berlusconi - that's really progress!

From Polish perspective: It would be interesting to compare our former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski with Orban. They both have the same objectives - to take the country away from those they see as inheritors of Communism. And the media and opposition response is in both case identical - cry authoritarianism and ask western politicians and press form help. In some cases it may be justified, but mainly it is reduced to smearing their political opponent and celebrity sob stories.

Could someone from Hungary tell me: do you have any celebrities sobbing that they are afraid of being dragged from their beds in the night by Orban and his jakc-booted henchmen?

For several years in Poland we were told that the whole world is laughing at us because of Kaczynski - the international symbol of backwardness and authoritarianism. Now seeing that sides in this new crisis doesn't drag our former prime minister into this I wonder - maybe we, our internal political struggles weren't so important to the world as the media and glitterati were telling us.

I wonder, will Orban be ever mentioned in the context of lets say future prime minister of Spain being accused of fascism if something resembling right or conservative party take place after Zapatero?

it is interesting to see all this media fuss over something that nobody has read yet
thats good journalism thank you very much
i am not defending Mr Orban i am just saying that The Economist, The Times, Die Welt etc should not punish a country/its PM until they read the law in question
of course i understand Germany's wrath because of the new company taxes in Hungary but come on guys what you are doing is everything but European

one thing we should never forget: we have used Hungary and the other Eastern-European countries as human shields to defend ourselves so we could stay safe from Russian oppression. we have nice and working old democracies at the price of theirs. so stop bullying them and at least lower our voice a bit!

yada from Paris

The imperialist media (that includes The Economist) tries to give lessons about democracy and free press to Hungary. I didn't hear the voice of these journalists when the West has attacked Iraq based on lies about weapons of mass destruction. Is it democratic to murder civilians in Iraq based on fabricated evidence and lies?
Is it democratic to send innocent citizens to Guantanamo just because of their ethnicity? Is it democratic the deportation of ethnic Gypsies from France? If this is what you call democracy then keep it for yourself and don't try to impose this sh@t abroad.

And by the way, you are not welcome in Hungary.