More Silly Media Tricks

Michael Hedges December 23, 2011 - Follow on Twitter

Media watchers can wail and moan all day and all night. Once a political strongman decides to slam the door on independent media there’s little anyone can do. It’s “regrettable.”

Hungary’s notorious Media Council effectively pulled the plug this week (December 20) on Budapest news-talk radio station Klubradio. Awarded the FM frequency was Autórádió, owned by media outsiders. Klubradio is known for reporting critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his far-right Fidesz political party. The Media Council as well as regulator National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) are under the strict control of Fidesz party appointees.

This latest development was noted by Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE) media representative Dunja Mijatovic. “It is regrettable that an independent and popular political talk radio station is to be terminated,“ she said in a statement (December 21). “The radio station known for its critical political views had half a million listeners daily. As an important source of independent information it contributed to the diversity of the media.”

Three radio stations in Hungary have surrendered their licenses this year, citing competition from the two big national radio channels for ad revenue. Two years ago the newly minted Media Council denied license renewals to national radio channels with foreign owners awarding frequencies to politically connected operators. Klubradio is locally owned, financed mostly through listener donations and independent from political parties.

PM Orban, battling fiercely to claim the title of Europe’s last dictator from Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, mounted a campaign against critical media soon after taking office. Public broadcaster MTV has all but surrendered. Also this week (December 21) reporters from prominent news portal Index.hu were banned from Parliament after posting a spoof video critical of Fidesz.

Other media watchers rounded on the continuing collapse of any semblance of independent news media in Hungary. “The decision to take away Hungary’s well-known politically-engaged Klubradio’s frequency is clearly another political purge,” said European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) president Arne König in a statement (December 22). “The move is a sign that Hungary’s new model of media regulation is undermining media pluralism and freedom of expression in Hungary. We believe the Media Authority must demonstrate that its regulatory decisions are being made independently of political inclination. Klubrádió is mainly talk radio, a format well suited for discussions about important matters in a democratic society.  Now the change goes in the direction of entertainment and avoiding necessary debate of the important issues in society.”

“The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has clearly failed to draw the lessons from the international outcry that overshadowed Hungary’s European Union presidency and still limits the EU’s ability to speak with authority on free speech issues,” said Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) (December 21).

“At a time when Croatia is joining the EU, Hungary’s government is adopting an increasingly repressive attitude to media freedom with the strange support of much of the country’s political class, and is violating the democratic standards it is supposed to embody with increasing frequency. Many countries violate fundamental rights but, as an EU member and signatory of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, Hungary cannot keep doing it.”

The reason for Klubradio losing its FM frequencies is very simple, said NMHH spokesperson Karola Kiricsi to a press conference (December 23). It’s money that matters. “The Media Council did not take away, ban or remove Klubradio,” she said. The succeeding applicant offered 30 to 40 percent more.

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