Public Media Offers Equal Coverage to All Parties, CEO Says

The Chief Executive of Hungary’s Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA), Daniel Papp, informed the European Commission delegates on Thursday that Hungary’s public media operates in a balanced manner and follows professional standards and relevant legal regulations.

He presented the situation of Hungary’s public service media to the EC delegation, which was conducting research for its 2023 rule-of-law report. According to MTVA’s statement, all content is produced in accordance with international standards. Papp highlighted the guarantees for impartiality and balance outlined in the MTVA code of ethics, the media law, and the public service code of ethics.

Before the parliamentary elections last year, MTVA, as in previous elections, established a public media election office to ensure that all public media services followed the public media code of ethics and relevant legal regulations, during both the campaign and election period. Despite efforts by opposition parties to politicize the public media with false accusations, Papp stated that statistical evidence showed that the public media offered equal coverage opportunities to all parliamentary parties, but they did not take advantage of these opportunities.

Representatives of left-wing parties boycotted public media appearances and tried to undermine its credibility and neutrality,

Papp said. However, no imbalances were found in Hungary’s public media during the election campaign, and in a single case brought before the National Election Committee, the decision favored the public media.

MTVA emphasized that the production of content must not be influenced by politics, which is a fundamental principle of Hungary’s public media operations.

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