New Media Law in Hungary - One of the first complaints

Those of you that read the news might have come across the furore caused by Hungary's Conservative government passing a new media law. This includes some ludicrous and very restrictive clauses, calculated to gag any and all criticism of the government, protect the government's image of what is moral, acceptable and promotable. The text of this great "national unity" they are building is now on the wall of every official place and we all supposed to read it in awe and live by it. This whole thing would be laughable if it was not backed up by a newly appointed Authority, whose members are all conservatives and who have near unlimited powers for 9 years, including the issuing of extremely punitive fines and the possible closure of newspapers, television stations and radio stations.

So the other day I have got an e-mail from a friend which advised me that an eminent academic put the new National Media & Communication Authority to the test by making a complaint about an antisemitic article using abusive language. We all know what sort of complaints this Authority is expecting: against blasphemy, against anti-authoritarian and anti-religious views. In fact, one line in the Media Law demands that news presenters put no opinions, interpretations or any views of their own into their programs. You see, even conservative Hungary seems to be full of pinko journalists, not just the BBC!

However, this professor's complaint is absolutely in line with the Media Law's provisions. He is complaining on the basis that this newspaper article was "offensive to his beliefs" and that practically calling for the murder of Jews is definitely "capable of disturbing the peace". We all wait the authority's response with bated breath!!

THE COMPLAINT

Subject: Complaint
From: "Istvan Mayer"
Date: Tue, January 4, 2011 14:29
To: info@nmhh.hu

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Dear Media Authority

I am very pleased that I managed to find your e-mail address.

Please deal with the matter of the deplorable article that appeared in the Magyar Hirlap, written by Zsolt Bayer. URL: http://www.magyarhirlap.hu/velemeny/ugyanaz_a_buz.html

As the quotation below shows, this article, apart from the barely hidden anti-Semitic incitement (by only mentioning from the myriad of articles on this topic in the world press those authors whose names sound Jewish) is tantamount to a call to repeat the massacre at Orgovány. This latter call is in all likelihood contrary to the statutes of the Hungarian Criminal Code; I believe that it is your duty to also notify the State Prosecutors office of this fact.

The text of the quotation:

“There is a “stench emanating” from Hungary – writes some stinking excrement from somewhere in England by the name of Cohen. Cohen, Cohn-Bendit and Schiff. And Népszava appears as a red man with the hammer, demanding press freedom. And most people think that this is something new and there has never been a campaign like this before. Nonsense, there is nothing new under the sun. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to bury all of them up to their necks in the forests of Orgovány .”

Looking forward to your actions in this matter,

With respect

Prof. Istvan Mayer
Chemical Research Centre
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-1525 Budapest, P. O. Box 17, Hungary
Phone: (+361) 438-41-41, -42...-45 (ext. 295, 107)
Fax: (+361) 438-1143, 438-1142, 325-7554, 325-7750