An Assessment of the Consistency of Hungary's Media Laws with ...

24 • Hungarian Media Laws in Europe
1/Media authority: independence
The ICA is an independent agency and governmental intervention is precluded by law: the
Government is not allowed to intervene. 144 The members of the ICA cannot be recalled by the
Government or any other political institution. Again, it is of major importance to highlight
Switzerland’s unique political system. The country is a so-called “concordance democracy” and
there is no Government-opposition system. The seven-member Federal Council (the Government)
is a grand coalition. The seats are distributed in approximate relation to the (major) parties
relative strength in the Federal Assembly (parliament). As a consequence, no party dominates
and decisions in the Federal Council are normally arrived at by consensus. This also means that
changes in government do not involve a change of the ruling parties and thus also no change
of heads of the administration. In sum, the Swiss political system is not prone to party political
influence on any of the departments and federal offices (e.g. OFCOM). As government decisions
are based on consensus, federal offices are not politicised.
However, the Federal Council retains the right to give instructions to the directors of federal offices
like OFCOM, which are subordinated to them. Nevertheless, federal offices usually perform their
tasks without political interference. The authority to give directions is usually restricted to strategy
and policy. Regulatory decisions are usually not interfered with. In addition, the Swiss Press
Council holds all media (press, radio, TV, websites of traditional media) to its self-regulatory code
of professional ethics.
Example cited by Hungarian Government: UK
“Members of the convergent British authority OFCOM – including its chairperson – are
appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.” 145
Expert assessment Lina Dencik, Phd, Visiting Faculty, Central European University, Budapest
Appointments to key positions within Ofcom have raised concerns since Ofcom’s inception as the
UK’s new “super regulator” in 2003. 146 However, the statement above is not entirely accurate, as it
misleadingly implies that the appointment process is wholly government controlled. The Ofcom
Board, including its chairperson, are appointed following procedures for all public appointments in
the UK, which are designed as a “check” on the ability of ministers to appoint politically affiliated
persons to key public posts, such as the Ofcom chairperson. 147 Hence, it is true the chairperson of
Ofcom is appointed jointly by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
(DBERR) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). But the appointment
process that follows is open to public scrutiny and conducted by a cross-party committee. However
http://www.bakom.admin.ch/dokumentation/gesetzgebung/00512/01031/index.
html?lang=de&download=NHzLpZeg7t,lnp6I0NTU042l2Z6ln1acy4Zn4Z2qZpnO2Yuq2Z6gpJCDdn96fmym162epYbg2c_
JjKbNoKSn6A-- .
144 Federal Act on Radio and Television (RTVA) Article 84, available at: http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/rs/784_40/a84.html.
145 “Reply to the criticisms expressed by the international media against the Media Act,” Ministry Of Public
Administration And Justice, January 3, 2011, available at: http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-publicadministration-and-justice/news/reply-to-the-criticism-of-the-international-media.
146 “Tories give warning on Ofcom’s Labour Party links,” The Sunday Times, October 6, 2006, available at: http://business.
timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article663004.ece.
147 Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA), available at: http://publicappointmentscommissioner.
independent.gov.uk/codeofpractice/ef8446f3551.html; See also Procedures for public appointments - Governance of Britain
Green Paper, available at: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2007/rp07-072.pdf.