Hungary charged with harming the basics on press freedom and open markets
Accusations of media censorship and discriminatory practices against foreign companies are charges that in the European Union tend to be associated with countries like China. But as the New Year gets underway, these are allegations that the EU finds itself investigating against one of its own members, Hungary.
The irony is sharpened by the fact that Budapest has in fact just taken over the reigns of the six-month rotating EU presidency. Recent domestic laws relating to the media and corporate taxation have some critics within the EU, questioning whether Hungary is fit to be part of the EU at all, let alone represent it.
The offending media law has established a new press supervisory authority, comprised wholly of appointees of the ruling Fidesz party, to oversee all public news production. The authority is empowered to levy heavy fines on media found guilty of publishing or broadcasting material deemed “immoral”, “unbalanced” or offensive to “human dignity”.
The move has drawn criticism from several European leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel and members of the European Parliament. French government spokesman and budget minister, François Baroin, has just joined the fray, stating the law was “incompatible with the application of ideas on press freedom that have been validated in European treaties”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, however, says criticism of the new law is based on ignorance and “misunderstandings”, that will soon be cleared up. In Hungary itself, many media outlets have responded with outrage, some newspapers publishing blank front pages as a form of protest. One of the first victims of the new authority is the local radio station, Tilos, currently being investigated for playing “morally inappropriate” songs in the afternoon by the American rapper, Ice-T.
It’s not only the media law that is facing European ire. Thirteen major European firms, including French insurance giant AXA, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom and Dutch financial group ING, have written a letter to the EU, urging Brussels to impose sanctions on Hungary for what they view as a crackdown on foreign investors and anti-competitive measures.
Hungary has begun to impose a ‘crisis tax’ that targets banks, energy, telecommunications and retail companies specifically. The multinational companies affected by it say such a tax was not discussed when they made the decision to invest in the country; hence, its subsequent imposition is unfair. Hungary’s government says the tax applies to all companies in the selected sectors that operate in the country, not only foreign ones, so, not discriminatory.
On Wednesday, the day before he sets off for Budapest for a traditional beginning-of-the-EU-presidency meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, told reporters he would be seeking further clarification of the new laws. “Freedom of the press is a sacred principle, a fundamental value” of the EU, he insisted.
The European commissioner responsible for telecommunications and information technology, Neelie Kroes, has already written to the authorities in Budapest for further information. The EC has received a 194-page translation of the media law. Legal experts in Brussels are examining it. The Commission has said it is investigating if the new tax rules discriminate against certain operators, thus contravening European law.
Given the trends in Hungary, one popular catch-phrase doing the rounds in relation to Budapest is ‘Putinisation’, expressing the fear that under Orban, the country is taking steps back towards its communist, authoritarian past. Many analysts believe this an over-simplification of facts. It has not been proved so far that any of Hungary’s new laws contravene EU rules. Orban, moreover, is a democratically elected leader.
Yet, at a time when the region’s ongoing sovereign debt crisis has exposed economic fissures between the northern and southern members of the Union, the latest stand-off with Hungary is an indication of another kind of rift. This time, in political culture and between western and newer eastern members of the EU. For Brussels, a portent of yet another tough challenge ahead.
