Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill sponsored by the ruling Tisza Party, to set up the Hungarian Radio and Television Nonprofit and MTI Nonprofit companies, changing the current public media structure and restoring the independence of the national news agency (MTI).
Magyar government builds new public media
Under the new legislation, the public media will be controlled by the Independent Public Media Authority, the Hungarian news agency wrote. Hungarian Radio and Television Nonprofit will incorporate the current public media foundation MTVA and Duna Mediaszolgaltato, while the Public Media Authority will replace the Public Service Foundation, as the owner of the public media companies.
The new law terminates the mandates of the head and members of the Media Council, as well as the heads of Duna Mediaszolgaltato and MTVA on the day following the new law’s promulgation, while all other stipulations will take effect 30 days later. The law was passed with 145 votes for and 39 against.
MTI to have separate, independent budget
In the new structure, MTI will have its own budget and will be tasked to provide “news, written and audiovisual material, photos, background material, graphics, and documentation concerning events in Hungary and abroad.” MTI will cover events related to the political parties, civil groups, the government and its agencies, municipalities, and the judiciary, while it will have correspondents across the country, as well as in Hungarian communities in neighbouring countries, and in other countries relative to Hungary’s international ties.
Heads of the two public media companies will be selected in open bids, excluding former prime ministers, government members, state secretaries, deputies, mayors, political party officials and “other political players” from the past five years. Parliament will define the budgets of the radio and television company and MTI for three years starting in 2028.
New public media authority
The public media authority’s nine members will be delegated by the parliamentary parties and media organisation, three by the government and three by the opposition for four years, and three by media organisations for two years. The authority will then select the heads of the two companies, and control the companies’s financial management. The authority’s approval will be necessary for major contracts and it will also have the companies audited each year. The current MTVA will be replaced by the Press Fund to support independent content providers “in line with the norms of ethical journalism”.
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Impartial, balanced, and high quality
The new law redefines the basic principles of the public media, and says that public media services should be aimed at providing “impartial, balanced, and high quality information” independent of the government, political or economic players, while observing editorial independence. Those requirements will be defined in the Public Service Charter, to be elaborated by the Public Service Council. The 18-strong council will exercise social controls over the public media and evaluate the annual reports of the public media companies. If the council does not accept the report, they could propose replacing the head of the radio and television company or that of MTI.
The Media Council, which now has 5 members, will have 7 members, three delegated by the government, three by the opposition, while its head will be selected by tender. Political party officials, delegates of political parties in state or municipal institutions or companies, or persons conducting other political activities in the past 5 years cannot be selected members of the council.
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There are a lot of unemployed propagandists in Hungary these days. The work they did brainwashing gullible Hungarians will probably live on for quite some time.
We see how “impartial” and “balanced” works in other countries, especially the failing Western statelets.
They are all, literally down to the last one, mouthpieces for the globalist-socialist-fascist cabal, parroting its talking points.
They outright refuse to air certain information, such as interminable incidents of third-world illegal alien trash violating local women and kids, or statistics pertaining the ethnicities and nationalities of criminals and welfare recipients. They are fail to present the climate realists’ rebuttals of the ludicrous, mendacious alarmism running roughshod over people’s daily lives. They give or do not give airtime to political leaders based on their personal political proclivities and allegiances.
What a joke.
They are not journalists or reporters. They are political activists, and they should be treated as such.
“Failing” would be any Russian aligned government such as the former Fidesz government, the Serbian government which hangs on by its’ fingernails, and Russia itself. The West has been supposedly in decline since the Vietnam War. The hilarious thing is that every single one of those corrupt Russians and Hungarians hide their wealth in the West because that is where it is secure and society operates in normality unlike the shit holes they live in. Putin secretly hires Western tutors to bring up his children. Get mental health counselling Steiner.
Steiner, your unhinged rant about ‘third-world illegal alien trash’ and ‘climate realists’ reads like it was beamed in from a parallel universe where facts are optional.
Maybe save the conspiracy bingo for your next session with Putin’s imaginary therapist, because the only thing ‘failing’ here is your grasp on reality 😂😂
Now tell me, WOLD didn’t hire you yet?
Well, Mike, we had your favoured cabal for sixteen years, and it was time for a change