Hungarian Media Monitor

An appeals court has upheld a prior court decision mandating that the Media Council must disclose the terms of its contracts with Hungary’s two largest commercial TV stations, RTL Klub and TV2. Gabor Csuday, an editor at Kreativ magazine, and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) filed the case against the Media Council after the Council refused to make public its new contracts with the two TV operators. RTL Klub and TV2,  which are both owned by German companies, appealed the first-instance court's decision requiring the Media Council to provide the contracts.

A group of leading Hungarian NGOs have asked the Council of Europe to continue negotiating with the Hungarian Government to make changes to the 2010 media laws. Council of Europe officials and the Hungarian government agreed in late January to introduce several changes to Hungary’s 2010 media legislation that include limiting the term lengths of the Media Council chairperson to nine years. Current rules allow the chairperson to serve indefinite nine-year terms. Hungary’s national public news service MTI reported that the announcement of the proposed amendments concludes the discussions between the Council of Europe and Hungarian officials over key aspects of the media legislation.