According to the Kúria, the Media Council legally declared the radio application invalid and excluded Klubrádió from it. The Court upheld the previous ruling of the Metropolitan Court in the Klubrádió case, reports Media1.
The upholding decision stated that the radio submitted an incorrect application and that the company could not have participated in the application due to the negative nature of its own capital.
Klubrádió initiated a review procedure against the Media Council of the National Media and Communications Authority in the case of the Budapest FM 92.9 MHz radio tender. It is interesting that the matter was decided by a panel of three people, including András Zs. Varga, the president of the Kúria (in addition to him, Ildikó Fekete and Gábor Remes made up the trio).
Pursuant to the judgment, the Media Council legally declared the Budapest FM 92.9 MHz radio tender to be invalid, and excluded the only participating radio from the tender. According to the Court, Klubrádió itself did not dispute that it made factual deficiencies in its application, and the Media Act and the law do not provide an opportunity to consider non-legal aspects in the event of invalidity. According to the court, the radio's business plan did not meet the requirements, it was not acceptable.
In its decision, the Court ordered Klubrádió to pay approximately 700,000 forints in court costs. Media1 also noted that after the Court's ruling becomes final, the possibility opens up for the NMHH Media Council to issue a new tender for 92.9 MHz, which will be temporarily used by Spirit FM until the end of October.
The Media Council of the National Media and Communications Authority announced in September of last year that it had rejected Klubrádió's request to extend its radio license, which expires on February 14, 2021, to Budapest FM 92.9 MHz. The NMHH referred to incomplete data provision.
Without a valid frequency, the channel has stopped broadcasting since February 15, and can only be listened to on the Internet. Klubrádió's case has already gone through the Capital Court and the Court. According to the court, the NMHH's Media Council decided to exclude Klubrádió Zrt. from the Budapest FM 92.9 MHz radio tender in a completely legal manner, based on the media law and the text of the call for tenders, and then the Court found that the radio had wrongly claimed that the rejection of their application was illegal.
Source: Wild Drives/Media1