Press freedom advocates like Reporters With Borders welcomed the law — but anticipated a bumpy road ahead.
“Obviously, it’s going to be much more difficult in Hungary than elsewhere,” the NGO’s Brussels bureau head Julie Majerczak said. It’s never too late, however, and if anything, the law will prevent Hungary-like situations elsewhere, she stressed.
Slovakia may also become a prime target for the rulebook, as a new draft law put forward by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government seeks to dismantle public broadcaster RTVS and create a new body instead. The incoming Slovak Television and Radio (STaR) will be led by a governing council whose members will be appointed by either the government or the Slovak parliament; the council will then pick — and dismiss at will — STaR’s managing director.
“It will be in breach of the future Media Freedom Act when it comes into force, without a doubt,” said Richard Burnley, the legal and policy director at the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of public broadcasters, to which RTVS belongs. Burnley called the draft law a “backward step for the region.”
Jourová also called out the Slovak initiative earlier this week. “In every country, there should be a really strong public service media and not a media that will serve as the mouthpieces of the party and the government,” she said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Beyond wishful thinking
The bulk of the new EU law will take effect 15 months after its publication in the Official Journal, which means by the end of 2025.