Thursday

28th Mar 2024

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

Get the EU news that really matters

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.

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  2. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  3. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  4. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  5. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult
  6. EU unveils plan to create a European cross-border degree
  7. How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route
  8. 2024: A Space Odyssey — why the galaxy needs regulating

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us