Hungarian Politics

[Jacob]

Sounds like a bunch of shit, Tamas. My sympathies

[Razgovory]

Why can't Fahdiz just leave poor Tamas alone?

[Syt]

Law on families:
The family is "not primarily a biological, but a social construct", and the "basic buildingstone" of Hungarian society. It consist of a husband, a wife, and children, but "cross-generational" relationships between grandparents and children are also important.
Subsidies for families will not be based on wealth, but will be granted universally. Media outlets will have to "respect the institution of marriage" in their broadcasts.

Are they banning broadcasts about homosexuals, or just same sex marriage?

From this time on, due to this law, children will be abided by law to "perform according to their talent" in school, and "avoid endangering their own health".

What's that supposed to mean?

Law on the national flag and heraldry:
There will be a National Heraldry Committee which will review the local heraldries of counties, cities, and towns for correctness. International fairs and events will have to have the cultural minsiter's permission to show the national flag, same goes for showing it on products. Private citizens are free to wave it around to "show their national identity" however.

That sounds relatively harmless (if useless)?

[Sheilbh]

The Economist has another depressing blog.  Again how true is this? 

Budapest backwash

Dec 23rd 2011, 12:45 by A.L.B. | BUDAPEST

THE NEWS was not a surprise and nor did it show much Christmas spirit. But it still came as a shock: Klubrádió, the enormously popular liberal talk radio station, has lost its frequency and will have to close by March 2012. The Media Council, all of whose members were nominated by the ruling right-wing Fidesz party after opposition parties boycotted it, and whose chairwoman, Annamária Szalai is a former Fidesz MP, has awarded the frequency to Autórádió, an obscure new company.

András Arató, Klubrádió's managing director, said he will contest the decision in court, as the station has a moral obligation to its half million listeners and 10,000 financial supporters. Karola Kiricsi, the council's spokeswoman, refused to explain to journalists the precise criteria under which the decision was taken and reportedly left the press conference after answering three questions. The Council maintains that it is an autonomous body, independent of government, and has assigned the state-owned frequencies in accordance to legal procedures. 

Either way, the decision will fuel the growing international alarm about the government's relentless centralisation of power, its packing of formerly independent institutions with party allies and will boost rising domestic anger over media freedom. Thousands of protestors gathered outside Hungarian Radio headquarters on Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, a group of current and former state television editors are on hunger strike after Zoltán Lomnici, a former chief justice, was airbrushed out of footage shown on state television. The clumsy editing brought back memories, all too familiar to this part of the world, of Soviet manipulation of photographs and history. 

One editor has since been sacked and another reassigned, but the hunger strike continues. The strikers say that the airbrush episode is symptomatic of widespread news manipulation and political pressure from the government. Norbert Fekete, a former editor at the evening news programme told Reuters: "We'd get clear instructions about expectations of any given story, what it must suggest. A recurring theme was the pressure to cast a negative light on previous Socialist governments. In this regime only good things happen." 

Both the government and the content provider for state news channels strongly deny the claims. The government fully respects the independence of the public media and rejects all allegations of influence, said a spokesman. But not everything is going the government's way. To the surprise of many, the Constitutional Court threw out several key provisions of the Media Law and drastically curbed the powers of the Media Council, removing its power to scrutinise print and online content for contravening human rights, human dignity and privacy. The law, the court ruled, "unconstitutionally limited freedom of the written press". The court also strengthened journalists' protection of sources, saying they may only be forced to divulge them under strict legal procedures. 

The Court also threw out a new law that regulates religious organisations and vetoed provisions of the criminal code that would the allow the chief prosecutor to decide which court would hear a particular trial, allow preliminary detention for five days without charges and allow a suspect to be held for two days without the right to contact a lawyer. Government officials said they will work with the court to find constitutional solutions to the problems. Meanwhile, MPs from LMP, the green-liberal opposition party, newly boosted by flattering coverage in the New York Times have chained themselves to the gates of Parliament to protest about the parlous state of Hungarian democracy. It may be down, but it's not certainly not out.

[Tamas]

It is true, except that Klubrádió is left-leaning, I wouldn't call it liberal in the classical sense.
But cleary it has been the only clearly opposition-voiced country-wide medium. The two major private TV stations has long retreated into simply not covering (apart from as news reporting) political issues at all.

The Const. Court decisions were mildly encouraging but:
-the media law thing is, well, it's not like it stopping the media authority from handling Klubrádió's frequency to a ridicously low-funded newbie company, now, does it?
-the religious law's new form only mildly differs from what was sent back by the Const. Court

The Court's true and final test comes next week, when they will have the pension nationalization issue on the agenda for the very last time. Due to the new Constitution, all pending cases will be nullified come 1st of January, so if they wish, they can continue biding their time on this issue to avoid any tough decisions one way or the other. Like they did since February.

[Razgovory]

From this time on, due to this law, children will be abided by law to "perform according to their talent" in school, and "avoid endangering their own health".

Yeah, I'm really curious what this is suppose to mean.

[Tamas]

From this time on, due to this law, children will be abided by law to "perform according to their talent" in school, and "avoid endangering their own health".

Yeah, I'm really curious what this is suppose to mean.

just like everyone else  That's just a point to illustrate the absurdity of the law.

[Martinus]

Seriously a pole playing the concentration camp card? Half of poland was on the waiting list hoping to get a chance to help the nazi's out.

At least we didn't have a government that allied itself with the nazis, like Hungary. And many Poles were shipped off to concentration camps too.

[Martinus]

The family is "not primarily a biological, but a social construct"

Doesn't that actually undermine it? Saying that something is a "social construct" has usually been the first step to deconstruct something.

[Neil]

Seriously a pole playing the concentration camp card? Half of poland was on the waiting list hoping to get a chance to help the nazi's out.

At least we didn't have a government that allied itself with the nazis, like Hungary. And many Poles were shipped off to concentration camps too.

Yeah, because Poles are fucking stupid.  You were in-between the Soviets and the Nazis, so you allied with fucking France.  There is no great moral value in not allying with the Nazis.

[Tamas]

Latest developments from Magyaristan (the Turks actually call Hungary that, rather prophetic, or they knew it all along):

-Constitutional Court didn't do anything regarding the pension nationalization. Fuck'em, I will NOT sign voluntary return to the state system, altough I would get the net profits of my account if I did that. Fuck me if I will be bribed by communists. Fuck this coward communist country as well. Fucking sheeps, the lot of them.

-Some months ago a thousand residents (that's how you also call your noob doctors?) decided to protest the abysmal state of healthcare and their salary in particular, and wrote letters of resignation coming into effect at 1st of January, hoping to force the government into doing something.
This morning's news is that the PM has ordered the relevant minister to do plans on how the healthcare system will function with a thousand doctors removed from it.
This is, btw, similar to what was already happening in Slovakia.

-A week or two ago, the state TV news blurred out a dignitary during a reporting (he is/was some kind of high-end prosecutor or whatever, doesn't matter much), when he was seen in the background during an interview done at some cross-borders Hungarian charity thingie.
It turned out that he has been like an arch rival of one of the new main guys at the TV station, ever since the TV guy didn't receive a position this other bloke got. So since he took his TV office, this prosecutor dude has been verboten to appear in any reporting.

During the ensuing scandal, two lowbie editors were fired, but two other works started a hunger strike in front of the TV building, demanding the firing of the real culprit, that boss guy I mentioned.
First they tried to break them with repeating music coming from a loudspeaker above their heads  Then the building's security slowly started building a fence around the entrance where these hunger strikers are, and this morning they wanted to finish it. Got into a bit of a brawl with the hunger strikers over it, then some politicans arrived, and latest report is that they tore the fence down.
Police is not interveening as it's "private property". I am not exactly sure what's the legal backing behind the police watching ildly as some folks destroy private property, I guess it's because the TV is not asking for help.
I am of course with the demonstrators.
EDIT: who were fired from their TV jobs yesterday

But then again, this is a sheepish nation and their efforts are in vain.

[The Brain]

Are they really fucking sheeps (sic)?

[Tamas]

Are they really fucking sheeps (sic)?

[Martinus]

-A week or two ago, the state TV news blurred out a dignitary during a reporting (he is/was some kind of high-end prosecutor or whatever, doesn't matter much), when he was seen in the background during an interview done at some cross-borders Hungarian charity thingie.
It turned out that he has been like an arch rival of one of the new main guys at the TV station, ever since the TV guy didn't receive a position this other bloke got. So since he took his TV office, this prosecutor dude has been verboten to appear in any reporting.

LOL wtf. This is beyond silly. It's Kafka-esque. 

[Sheilbh]

LOL wtf. This is beyond silly. It's Kafka-esque. 

I think this is the story:
http://www.budapesttimes.hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21585&Itemid=219
What I find most absurd is how shit the airbrushing was:



Again Tamas, use your EU citizenship and come to the UK or Ireland - I don't know if you speak any other languages - if so maybe try more economically active bits, like Germany.

And I feel I should apologise to Marti for all the Poland jokes during the twin years.  It's still weird that you elected twins but nothing on this