Keyword – state advertising

Bátorfy, Attila:

The purchased public sphere

This paper examines the Hungarian government’s media subsidisation and state advertising practice based on the notion “subsidised speech” as studied in the American constitutional law. It attempts to conceptualise the collision between the government’s right to speech and the citizens’ basic rights and the public interest.

Keywords: freedom of speech, public discourse, state advertising, state subsidy, subsidized speech

Polyák, Gábor:

Regulation of public advertising in the draft European Media Freedom Act

The volume and discriminatory distribution of state advertising is one of the most serious problems of the Hungarian media system and media freedom. The original draft of the European Media Freedom Act and the amendments proposed by the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament and of the Council are important attempts to curb this uncontrolled public spending. This paper shows what the European regulatory proposal offers as a solution and how it may be interpreted in the light of the previous practice of the European institutions.

Keywords: EMFA, media freedom, public spending, state advertising, transparency

Polyák, Gábor:

Media in Hungary: Three Pillars of an Illiberal Democracy

The paper summarises the main tools of Viktor Orbán’s illiberal media policy. These tools can be grouped into three pillars. First, it presents the new organisational framework that has allowed for political influence to be exerted through the supervisory boards, then it offers an analysis of the tools of market manipulation, and finally it looks into how the ruling party dominates political discourse in Hungary.

Keywords: freedom of information, independent media supervision, media policy, press freedom, state advertising, self-censorship