Open letter to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe held a press conference on 29th January about - among other issues - the efforts of the Hungarian government on amending media-regulation and the agreement between the Council of Europe and the Hungarian government was welcome. Five Hungarian NGOs sent a letter in which the Secretary General and the Council of Europe are asked to monitor further changes in the system of the Hungarian media-regulation.

According to the HCLU, the Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Europe Society, the Mérték Media Monitor and the South East European Network for Professionalization of Media, the agreement can be seen as a first step in the remedy of the structural problems. Freedom of the media in Hungary needs further domestic and international efforts. The NGOs, interested in media freedom, ask the Council of Europe to evaluate the Hungarian media-regulation regarding its own previous analyses and recommendations.

The letter of the NGOs is available here.

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