Margit Feher
Wall Street Journal
December 31, 2010
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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BUDAPEST—Hungary will begin regulating all media directed at or published in Hungary from Saturday, including Internet news portals and web-based publications, under a controversial media law published Friday.
The law will require the news media to provide a “balanced view” in its coverage and allow people to initiate a probe at the media authority into coverage if they regard it as unbalanced. The state may impose fines for “unbalanced” or “offensive” reporting, and shut down media organizations.
All parliamentary opposition parties said after the law was published that they will submit an appeal to the country’s Constitutional Court. Parliament, in which the governing Fidesz party has a two-third majority, passed the bill last week.
The new law will be introduced on the same day Hungary assumes the European Union’s rotating presidency, and has drawn criticisms from other European Union members. Germany’s deputy foreign minister Werner Hoyer said last week that the media law “does not represent the idea of a union that is built on unity in diversity.”
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