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.

Share

Related articles

INCLO Members welcome Hossam Baghat"s release and remain vigilant

Hossam Bahgat, journalist and founder of human rights group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was released on Tuesday, November 10th after being detained arbitrarily for two days.

Read more »

Journalist Wins Defamation Lawsuit

Lajos Gubcsi, former Director of Zrínyi Media Ltd. – a background institution of the Ministry of National Defense – initiated a defamation lawsuit against József Spirk, journalist of Index.hu, the leading online news provider in Hungary. The HCLU’s Legal Aid Service provided legal representation. The court ruled that facts written in the article were well-founded and as a result ruled in favor of the journalist. The ruling is final.

Read more »

The Third Wave – the New Constitution of Hungary

In their current, third analysis on the legislative work of the Hungarian Parliament, the Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) examine whether the constitution-making process in Hungary meets the requirements deriving from the principle of the rule of law and compares the draft “Fundamental Law” (i.e. the draft of the new Constitution) submitted to the Parliament on 14 March 2011 with the present constitutional system.

Read more »