Dec 22, 2010, 12:27 GMT
Berlin/Vienna - German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a warning to Hungary on Wednesday over its tough new media control law - adopted just as Hungary is about to take the presidency of the European Union.
On Tuesday the parliament in Budapest approved the law, which gives wide-ranging oversight powers to the country's media control body NMHH.
Merkel's deputy spokesman, Christoph Steegmans, said she was advising Hungary to make sure that it did not breach the principles of the rule of law.
'As a future president of the European Union, Hungary naturally has an special responsibility for the image of the European Union as a whole,' he said, referring to the presidency term starting on January 1.
For this reason, it has to conform to EU values, he said.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) charged that Hungary's new law endangers media freedom and violates the organization's standards.
'Such concentration of power in regulatory authorities is unprecedented in European democracies, and it harms media freedom,' OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mjatovic said in a statement.
Mijatovic also criticized the fact that top officials installed to monitor the media all belong to the ruling Fidesz party.
She said that regulating print and online media based on the same rules as television runs against standards of the OSCE.
The 56-country organization champions human rights and democracy, besides dealing with security issues.
'I am concerned that Hungary's parliament has adopted media legislation that, if misused, can silence critical media and public debate in the country,' Mijatovic said.
She pointed to a lack of defined guidelines in the law and its high fines for violations, including supposedly unbalanced.
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