Socialist MEPs have been engaged in a profound battle for press freedom in an extraordinary scenario which has been little reported in Britain. The Hungarian government of the right-wing Fidesz party has taken over the reigns of the presidency of the European Union only weeks after implementing one of the most draconian media laws seen anywhere in post-Communist Europe.
The Hungarian Media Act contains three elements which put it beyond independent media regulation existing in any other EU member state.
A new national broadcasting regulator, the National Media and Communications Authority, appointed by the prime minister and containing members all from one political party, Fidesz – to reiterate, there are no members from any other party – must decide what is “balanced” or “unbalanced” press and broadcasting coverage within the country.
The new authority, which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has bizarrely tried to compare to Ofcom in the United Kingdom, has disturbed even large sections of the centre-right European People’s Party in Brussels.
The deeply unrepresentative nature of the authority is seen as an authoritarian throwback for a deeply conservative government taking advantage of its two-thirds majority. The actual text of the media law is peppered with phrases such as “morality”, “decency” and “human dignity” – all of which are code for a new populist take on morality.
The intention is to clamp down on anti-government broadcasting, but also to usher in a new right-wing authoritarianism which Orbán believes will sate the appetite of the neo-Nazi Jobbik Party and foster a populist sentiment among the currently right-wing-supporting electorate.
For journalists, political activists and anyone else who understands that press freedom lies at the heart of democracy, events in Hungary are deeply sinister. Large, punitive fines on journalists will now be handed down to those who breach the new code and sources will have to be revealed in many scenarios set out by the media law. Those deemed to be in violation of the law are to be prosecuted within the justice system and not by the government authority.
The Socialist and Democrat Group in the European Parliament is leading the charge against Hungary’s media law. We have vigorously questioned Viktor Orbán to expose a trend which is not only bad for Hungary, but bad for the EU as a whole, as new press restrictions are introduced or threatened in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland and, of course, Italy under Silvio Berlusconi.
Socialist Group MEPs questioned EU commissioners to ensure that they act as guardians of EU treaties. The commissioners were assured that this is not an attack on a centre-right administration which happens to be taking on the European presidency, but one that has been roundly criticised by the French and German governments from the same political family.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has condemned Hungary’s media law. It is being introduced in the context of a range of reactionary and “patriotic” moves on economic policy, including the rejection of guidance from the International Monetary Fund, the raiding of private pensions, the unseating of the independent governor of Hungary’s central bank and so-called “crisis taxes” on foreign companies.
The Hungarian media law is not a return to totalitarianism, but the Hungarian government’s power grab does raise a serious question: would a country on such a path be allowed to join the EU? Probably not, but in promoting democracy, the EU has less influence on members than on applicants.
Socialist MEPs take the view that we cannot compromise on this frontline in press freedom. We have raised the nuclear option of suspension of Hungary’s voting rights for “serious and persistent breaches” of EU treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We have put it to the EU Commissioner for Fundamental Rights that the media law breaches the post-Lisbon settlement on what any EU country should regard as the bottom line on human rights.
It was Socialist MEPs who rallied the EU to take action against French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the Roma, not because of our dislike of his domestic policy, but because that policy breached the fundamental standards on rights expected of any EU member.
This could be a powerful weapon in the hands of EU commissioners and MEPs, who must regard the EU, if anything, as a community of values. Time and again, often largely unreported in the British press, Socialists MEPs are at the forefront of resistance to authoritarianism and discrimination in the EU.
With the Liberals, GUE (far left) and Greens, I tabled a resolution on the move by the Lithuanian government to enact a new administrative offence on the “public promotion of homosexual relations”, which comes with punitive fines. It was interesting to see that the European People’s Party was split again on this issue and the European Parliament as a whole, despite its centre-right majority, voted against the new Lithuanian law.
In this “age of austerity”, when most European governments are on the centre-right, there is a persistent danger of populist or “patriotic” policies being enacted to maintain governing coalitions, often with far-right groupings. This is not just an issue for eastern Europe. Witness the growing debate in France on the high level of popularity being reached by the renewed National Front, where Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen, has succeeded her father as leader. Her opinion poll ratings nationally far exceed her father’s and she is promising to stand for the French presidency. The fear is that this will be Sarkozy’s cue to opt for more repressive policies and a search for scapegoats, which is what he did with the Roma deportation.
It is vital that the left challenges attacks on media freedom wherever they are and defends hard-won rights and liberties. The stand taken by Socialist MEPs against Viktor Orbán is a good start.
Claude Moraes is a Labour MEP for London and Socialist and Democrat group spokesperson on civil liberties, justice and home affairs in the European Parliament
