Sanctions

Under Hungary’s new media laws, the Media Authority can impose a range of sanctions on media outlets, including on individual editors and top officers, for breaches to numerous regulations in the media laws. Penalties include fines, suspensions, revocation of broadcasting licenses, deletion from the media register and banning outlets from participating in future tender offers. Critics say that the fines and sanctions are excessive, and that breaches are vaguely defined in the law, which could lead to “self-censorship” and have a chilling effect on the press...

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Findings

Hungarian Government statement


In cases of severe violations of law, the Czech Republic’s RRTV is authorised to revoke a broadcaster’s license. Such event may constitute the breach of a regulation on analogue broadcasting, under which a given legal entity or natural person may only be the registered owner of one television channel or radio station that is licensed for nationwide coverage.

CZECH REPUBLIC


Expert assessment: Sanctions

This statement is essentially correct although incomplete and takes some provisions out of context. After repeated and severe violations to certain provisions in the Broadcasting Act—including breaches to regulations on protection of minors—and after fines have been repeatedly levied, the Czech broadcasting authority, the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting (RRTV), can revoke a broadcaster’s license. 55

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Milan Šmíd, PhD, Charles University, Prague




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