2:03 pm CET
Dec 23, 2011

Emerging Europe

Hungary Hurts Press Freedom, Say Journalists’ Groups

    • IIt is plain and simple - Klubradio's fiscal offer was poor. End of the story.

    • @optipessimistic: so what? is it really enough to silence a radio station that has half a million regular listeners? let's not pretend to be naive and believe that this was not a political decision. we are heading back to dark ages of dictatorship with the speed of light! if we hate the money mindedness of the West that much, why is it enough to silence a great radio station simply based on financial reasons? Wake up people!

    • @optipessimistic: No, it's not the end of the story. First of all, the Media Council is not supposed to be an auction house that sells broadcasting rights to whoever makes the biggest offer. The Media Council is required by law to consider the needs and interests of the public. In a country of ten million, Klubrádió has over half a million dedicated listeners, for whom it has been a vital lifeline, and there is no reason to think that a radio channel broadcasting pop music will serve the needs of a comparable number of people. Second, the official justification based on the financial side of the matter is a transparent lie. This much should be obvious from the fact that the Media Council refuses to disclose any details. The Media Council ended up awarding the frequency to a company with a total capital equivalent to about four-thousand five-hundred dollars. That's right, $4,500. Nothing is known about this company. Journalists have tried in vain to reach a representative of the company to inquire about its intetions. If such a bogus entity is in the position to make a grand offer, this can only be because it is counting on subsidies and advertisement revenue from state offices and agencies run by the ruling party. As everyone familiar with the media situation in Hungary knows, the ruling party pours fortunes into right-wing media outlets via advertisements paid for by state offices, while using blackmail (tax audits etc.) to keep companies from buying advertisement rights from media outlets that refuse to toe the line.

    • If Klubradio is forced to close down, the best solution is to re-establish Radio Free Europe. Maybe then Orban will remember what he fought against more than two decades ago.

    • I simply love when some soclibs start screaming about how tough life is when the are at the hard end of what they call "market". Klubradio was sold them cheaper than it should have been; now they thought they could hold on to it, also cheaper than what the other applicants offered - well, they wer wrong.

    • "the ruling party pours fortunes into right-wing media outlets "

      Go and complain where all the money for the municipal party-line journals sold to Ringier and others ended up after the privatization frenzy, or try to garner a pool of soclib sympathizer media, similarly to how HirTV or Echo were established, so the left-wing talking heads like Bolgár and similar black-belt Communist propagandists can continue to pollute the airwaves.

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