Opposition Jobbik submits bill against ‘state-sponsored fake news’

Jobbik lawmaker Péter Jakab on Monday submitted to parliament a draft legislation proposing that media organisations convicted for providing false information should be stripped of any form of state funding.

Media outlets accumulating at least three final court rulings in one year for spreading fake information should lose “direct or indirect access” to state monies, he said.

The ruling parties built their campaign before the last general election on “lies by (ruling) Fidesz’s media”, Jakab told a press conference on Monday, adding that it also harmed the state’s credibility.

On the same day, the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition has proposed to set up a special parliamentary committee to resolve “the home eviction crisis”, a member of the party’s group said.

Speaking at a press conference, Sándor Székely criticised the government’s pressing “evictions with police force” of tenants struggling with their mortgage payments.

Székely, who is the head of the Solidarity Movement civil group, said there are 250,000 mortgage holders who have been in arrears for the past six months or longer, and predicted that up to 10 percent of the whole population could lose their homes in the next few months.

Source: MTI