Sunday

28th May 2023

Hungary restricts campaign freedoms ahead of EU elections

  • Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban says the amendments passed by parliament respect EU laws (Photo: European Parliament)

Recent amendments passed by Hungarian lawmakers will restrict advertising campaigns for European Parliament elections.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso raised the issue last Friday (8 March) in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The letter, seen by this website, questioned the conformity of the amendments to EU law and how “these relate to the issue of advertising campaigns for European Parliament elections.”

Hungarian deputies pushed through an amendment on Monday that would create the constitutional basis to ban political advertisements in commercial media during election campaigns.

Almost two-thirds of Hungarians tune into two commercial national networks.

Candidates who want TV exposure will now have no alternative but to have their views aired on a much smaller public media broadcaster that is heavily influenced by Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party.

“Since the rule covers the elections of the MEPs, Barroso's concerns are well-grounded,” Szabolcs Hegyi, from the Budapest-based Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) told EUobserver on Tuesday (12 March).

Hegyi said public TV, radio, and the national news agency is centralised and dominated by the governing parties.

They also depend financially on media council whose head is appointed by Orban. The current media chief is former Fidesz minister Annamaria Szalai.

Hegyi says biased reporting and self-censorship are not uncommon whenever the news slams the ruling government.

He noted that the state broadcast shots of empty streets, despite throngs of nearby protestors, when the Hungarian government last year made other changes to the constitution.

Other examples include cutting a report on a press conference with French Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit or deleting images of the previous head of the Supreme Court.

Other pro-right experts agree.

“The public service media is completely controlled by Fidesz,” said Andras Kadar, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in Budapest.

Andras says the latest rulings passed through the parliament are designed to undermine the power of constitutional court.

“Basically what you see here is a total lack of respect for the decisions of an independent institution,” said Kadar.

The court in January ruled the restrictive advert ban as an unconstitutional limitation of free political competition.

As an independent institution, the constitutional court ensures a balance between the executive and legislative. Except in areas of economic policy, the court can strike down legislation that is in breach of the constitution.

Pro-media rights group say the limitation sets a potentially dangerous precedence.

Free campaign ads will now be restricted to public media and only to so-called "nation-widely supported political parties."

“Those parties that have a representative candidate list regarding the whole country may advertise for free in the public media,” a government spokesperson in Budapest told this website by email, when asked to explain what "nation-widely supported political parities" means.

The amendment notes that candidates must be provided free and equal access to public media.

“While obviously it says that there is equal footing in the public service media, well I don’t think that anyone really believes footing will really be equal,” said Kadar.

The delegation of conservative Hungarian euro-deputies, for their part, says the amendments do not violate EU law.

“Hungary is a well-functioning democracy where media freedom is guaranteed, citizens can demonstrate freely, the courts are independent and the checks and balances are fulfilling their functions,” said the delegates in a statement on Tuesday.

Hungary’s president still has to sign the amendments before they become an integral part of the constitution.

Opinion

Time to suspend Orban's EU voting rights

The time has come to react to Viktor Orban's trampling of EU values in Hungary by suspending his voting rights. His own group, the EPP, must get on board, writes Liberal group chief Guy Verhofstadt.

Investigation

Europe's missing mails

How the EU Commission and national governments delete official emails and text messages — creating areas of decision-making without oversight and control.

MEPs urge Orbán to act to unblock EU money

MEPs tasked with controlling spending of EU funds said they continued to have "great concerns" on how Hungary is handling EU money and called on prime minister Viktor Orbán's government to implement the necessary reforms to unblock suspended EU funds.

Latest News

  1. How the EU's money for waste went to waste in Lebanon
  2. EU criminal complicity in Libya needs recognition, says expert
  3. Europe's missing mails
  4. MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024
  5. PFAS 'forever chemicals' cost society €16 trillion a year
  6. EU will 'react as appropriate' to Russian nukes in Belarus
  7. The EU needs to foster tech — not just regulate it
  8. EU: national energy price-spike measures should end this year

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us