'Hungary’s democratic credentials at issue’ amid media law criticism

PRESSURE is mounting on the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, to change his new media law that civil rights groups claim could gag the media and put them under the control of the government.

The new media law greatly expands the state’s power to monitor and penalise private news outlets, including on the internet, and publications deemed to be unbalanced or offensive in their coverage may face large fines.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso warned him that his country’s democratic credentials were at issue and reminded him that he needs the support of all member states during his six months leading the EU and so for political as well as legal reasons he must change the new rules.

But Orban, who told France and Germany to mind their own business after they criticised the new law, sent out a clear message that he would not be forced to make changes.

The commission was in Budapest for a meeting with the Hungarian government, which has officially taken over the rotating presidency of the 27-member block.

Orban — known as a strongman whose unprecedented two-thirds majority in parliament gives him virtually unlimited powers — has his own strong views on how his country and the EU should be managed.

The row over his media law threatens to overshadow his six-month stint and he has already received a warning letter from the European Commission that it is investigating it.

“We are ready to do anything to make sure that this act does not hamper a successful Hungarian presidency,” he said but repeated his point that “foreign solutions” could discriminate against Hungary.

Barroso, in an unusually forthright manner, told him that the “the principle of freedom of the press is sacred and a fundamental principle” in Europe.

He said that Orban had assured him that he would adjust the legislation if the commission found it did not respect the European values of media freedom.

But he went further and said: “There are the legal issues where we have to be extremely strict but there are also the political perceptions and the need for Hungary to have the full backing of all member states and the European institutions to make this presidency successful.”

He added it was very important that countries were confident of Hungary’s democracy. “I am fully confident in Hungary’s democracy and the rule of law and it is important we have no doubts about it and so it is important that the prime minister takes all the necessary steps to make sure this is clear inside and outside Hungary.”

Orban, who was a leading figure in Hungary’s fight against communism, said Hungarians had shed their blood for freedom and their lives for democracy and were against totalitarianism.

His country demanded the same respect as other European democracies and suggested he would not make concessions for political reasons. “That is why this is primary a legal issue and not a tug of war or a prestige issue — we do not want to make this a combat issue… No campaigns. No pressure,” he said, adding that there would be no change if it did not make sense.

As well as investigating Hungary’s media law, the commission is also looking into complaints it received from companies in Hungary over a special crisis tax the government has imposed on some big businesses based on their turnover.