Testing democracy

One of the points on the Agenda of the session of Parliament called (mandatorily) on 1 February at the request of all the opposition parliamentary parties will be the motion to amend the media act which has a direct impact on Klubrádió’s near future.

The single party Media Council issued a call for tenders for the use of the 92.9 MHz frequency while the renewal of the Klubrádió contract is still subject to a court case. Klubrádió is in a near winning position on this tender because the only competitor to it has been disqualified by the authorities for reasons of formalities. However, this seemingly minor player filed a motion against the decision, and as a result, the tendering procedure has necessarily been disrupted for at least six months.

Currently in force legislation provides that the user of the frequency cannot be granted temporary broadcasting licence, not even for the period of the tendering procedure, however, if a service provider’s licence expires after a one time renewal of the licence, as the legislation provides, it can be granted such a grace. The objective of the motion to amend this legislation filed by MSZP is to remove this unconstitutional and irrational anomaly due to which, by the way, the absurd legal grounds for temporarily silencing Klubrádió will cease to exist.

There are three options open to the Government party to act upon on Monday. The expectable conduct is to participate at the session and adopt the motion. Should Fidesz-KDNP sabotage the Parliamentary session by non-attendance, or should they not vote for the motion, they would make it crystal clear that there are no real legal reasons for withdrawing Klubrádió’s licence, and that it is specifically political will that infringes the fundamental right of hundreds of thousands of people to comprehensive, all-round information.

You can read this statement in Hungarian here.