IPI Mission to Hungary
On the occasion of a fact-finding mission to Budapest (5-6 April 1994), and after consultation with the individuals concerned, the International Press Institute (IPI) would like to again focus attention on the recent dismissal of 129 employees at "Magyar Radio", Hungary’s state radio company.
Given the seriousness of the situation, IPI, representing journalists and editors from leading newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 80 countries, has decided to:
-inform the Council of Europe, where the Institute has consultative status, of the flagrant breaches of press freedom standards in Hungary;
-ask the Council to exert pressure on the Government of Hungary to pass legislation which guarantees a public broadcasting system free from government influence: and
-inform Mr. Abid Hussain, the newly-appointed Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression (Centre for Human Rights, United Nations office at Geneva, Switzerland), of the situation.
Furthermore, IPI decided to form a National IPI Committee in Hungary, which will actively pursue the aims of the Institute on the spot and report to the Secretariat on developments affecting the press, particularly on threats to freedom of the press and/or broadcasting media and to the free flow of news.
As a result of its mission to Hungary, IPI finds itself in agreement with the leading journalists and intellectuals of the country, who maintain that the mass lay-off was merely the latest incidents in a series of attempts by the government to gain control over the media and silence criticism before the elections scheduled for 8 May 1994.
The employees, who are mostly editors and journalists, were officially dismissed as of 12 April 1994, but they had been effectively banned from works as of 4 March 1994, following an announcement by the state radio’s management of its decision. The Acting Vice President of Hungarian Radio, Mr. László Csúcs, stated that the employees were laid off for economic reasons. While IPI realizes that there may be a need for streamlining within the national broadcasting organisations, the timing of the sackings and the methods used by the management must be interpreted as politically-motivated.
In 1992 the Government of the late Dr. József Antall, then Prime Minister of Hungary, forced Mr. Elemer Hankiss and Mr. Csaba Gombar, the presidents of Hungarian television and radio, to resign. IP condemned this as an attempt to stifle freedom of expression in Hungary and time and again pointed out that such actions were harmful to Hungary’s fledgling democracy. In this, IPI had the support not only of the national and international media, but also of the President of the Republic of Hungary, Mr. Arpad Göncz, who categorically refused to sign the dismissal notices.
Today, Hungarian radio and television are in the hands of two vice-presidents with "presidential authority". Since their politically motivated appointment, the situation at the state broadcasting companies has deteriorated further. In a series of incidents, critical programmes were cancelled and independent-minded journalists suspended and replaced with persons close to the government. In the opinion of several independent observers, radio and television broadcasts are now strongly biased and have deteriorated in quality.