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Strasbourg, February 16, 2011 - The European Parliament plenary debated this afternoon the issues related to the Hungarian Media Law, in the presence of European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes.
Romanian MEP Renate Weber, ALDE' spokersperson on civil liberties and fundamental rights, has stressed - during her plenary speech - the fact that even if Hungary admitted today four areas of change in the media law, there are still others that need amendments:
"In this Parliament we have discussed in the past cases when different governments have proven their desire to control media. But never the attempts went that far as in the case of the Hungarian media law, where from television to radio, to written press, to on demand metian bloggers, everything is under control from registration to suspension.
When we, the liberal democrats, first raised our voice against this law, we were accused of being politically motivated. However, life proved we were right - and today even the Hungarian government admits something is very wrong with this law, so therefore several amendments are envisaged. We trust the Commission that this is indeed the Hungarian position, hoping to receive it in written, and we will closely follow the changes.
Nevertheless those four areas requested by the Commission are only a part of a much bigger picture. Others must be changed as well, mostly those on huge control powers vested in the hands of a politically appointed person heading two media control authorities for nine years, lack of protection of journalists' sources, lack of effective judicial remedy to name just a few.
After all, the European Commission will have to answer to the Hungarian and European civil society and journalists why OSCE and the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe have also harshly criticised the aspects mentioned above. We cannot all be politically motivated. Quite the opposite, we are motivated by a genuine interest to see that media freedom is a reality for the benefit of our citizens."
