According to the Commissioner of the Council of Europe, terrible conditions prevail in Hungary. Everything is here: a politically driven media regulatory authority, distorting state intervention, discrediting campaigns against human rights defenders and investigative journalists, retaliation for any criticism of the government, suppression of civil society. They called me to restore the freedom of journalism and the media.
"The combined effect of the politically driven media regulatory authority and the distorting state intervention in the media market challenged the pluralism of the media and the freedom of expression in Hungary", therefore it is "high time" to restore journalistic and media freedom in the country, stated Dunja Mijatovic. the human rights commissioner of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe on Tuesday.
The human rights commissioner of the 47-member international organization wrote in his memorandum on the issue, "Since 2010, the Hungarian government has regularly undermined independent and professional journalism, thereby limiting the free exchange of different opinions, especially outside the capital."
The commissioner called it worrisome that "discrediting campaigns are being carried out against human rights defenders and investigative journalists" because, in his opinion, their aim is to stifle civil society. This carries the message that any criticism of the government will result in retaliation, he wrote.
According to him, the government "refuses to acknowledge the role of independent institutions, be they regulatory authorities or judicial bodies."
"By repeatedly ignoring the judgments of national and international courts, the government has expressed that it does not intend to comply with the rule of law, which is a basic condition for freedom of expression," he said.
Mijatovic stated: the opaque processes of the distribution of state advertisements based on political loyalty, as well as the discretionary powers of the Hungarian Media Council, eliminated the equal conditions of competition in the field of media, as well as reduced freedom of expression in Hungary.
The commissioner believed that the public service and the pro-government media "lack accountability and professional sophistication", and the work of independent media and investigative journalists "faces increasingly serious obstacles or is being purposefully hindered". He wrote that the media law should be amended in order to reverse the situation, as well as to divide the excessive powers of the president of the media authority and to limit his discretion.
"According to the law and in practice, Hungary must comply with the Council of Europe's regulations on media pluralism and properly respect the editorial independence of all public and private media," underlined Mijatovic.
The Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Hungarian authorities to "take note of the threat that hate speech against journalists poses to society as a whole, and to publicly condemn all its manifestations, as well as put an end to civil society organizations, human rights defenders and discrediting campaigns against those who criticize the government and spreading misleading information about them".
The commissioner also emphasized that a free political debate is needed before the Hungarian parliamentary elections in 2022. In this context, he called on the Hungarian authorities to ensure equal conditions for all candidates, including media appearances.
MTI
