The Hungarian TV2 rejects charges concerning sale

Budapest, January 17 (MTI) – Hungarian commercial television TV2 refutes accusations made recently in connection with its sale and against its new owners, spokesman Tamas Koltay told MTI on Friday.

TV2 on Friday requested from several media companies and editorial offices to issue corrections for “unfounded statements” that were included in reports and articles prepared on the basis of the press conference Socialist politician Robert Braun had given on January 13, he said in a statement.

Braun said that he had recently bought a single share in the German media company in order to inform other shareholders that “the management is giving help to a nefarious and corrupt business”.

He said that if ProSiebenSat.1, the parent company, does not stop the sale of TV2 — one of two major commercial television stations in Hungary — within a week then he would turn to the European Commission and the US Justice Department (one of the owners of ProSiebenSat.1 is an American investor) over the matter.

The German company has extended a loan to the new owners, Zsolt Simon, TV2’s managing director, and Yvonne Dederick, the station’s finance director, to fund the purchase.

Braun said it was suspected that the buyers were preparing to pay off the loan using revenue from state-led advertising once the ruling Fidesz party were to win the spring general election.

Koltay called the charges untrue, asserting that the purchase had been made in a fully transparent way, by fulfilling all requirements set by international and Hungarian laws.

Source: http://hungarymatters.hu/