At the beginning of March, Dobos Menyhért, the CEO of Duna Médiaszolgáltat Nonprofit Zrt., announced that the public media provides media space for the parties beyond their legal obligations, so the parties presenting a national list in the parliamentary elections could present their programs on M1 and Kossuth Rádio.
The parties participating in the election would also have the opportunity to appear with their advertisements on the public media channels, but neither the Normal Life Party nor the opposition coalition have taken advantage of this so far. Meanwhile, these parties and their politicians regularly criticize the public media, despite the fact that the leftist position is regularly presented on its various channels and platforms. The rejection of the possibility of political ads is also strange because RTL Klub shows a significant number of political messages from left-wing parties.
According to the rules of the election law and the media law, during the election period, all parties presenting a list can publish their advertisements three times a day free of charge on Duna Television and Kossuth Radio. This means a total of more than 130 appearances per list in the period leading up to the election.
The Közmédia Electoral Office sent out information on the possibility of free political advertising and its details to the nominating organizations on March 3, and their broadcast began on March 11. From their first appearance, the parties that expressed their demand appeared on Duna Television and Kossuth Rádió a maximum of three times each day.
MTI
Front page image: Illustration / Photo: Zsolt Gréczy, member of parliament from South Africa, climbs over the fence into the area of MTVA's Kunigunda utca headquarters on December 17, 2018. MSZP representative Zsolt Molnár from the area (b) helps him. Photo: MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry
