Hungarian Weeklies Protest Proposed Media Law With Blank Covers
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Hungarian weeklies Magyar Narancs and Elet es Irodalom ran blank cover pages today to protest a media bill they say will muffle the press by giving a regulator appointed by the ruling party too much power to mete out fines.
The bill, being debated by lawmakers, would allow the newly created Media Council to fine television and radio stations as much as 200 million forint ($943,000) for coverage deemed unbalanced, according to the proposal posted on parliament’s website. Fines for daily national newspapers and Internet news websites would be up to 25 million forint while the ceiling for weeklies would be 10 million forint.