Media authority criticises media freedom reports for Hungary, citing bias and errors

The media freedom reports published on Hungary in 2024 have shown the shortcomings detected in earlier reports, Hungarian media authority NMHH said.

By: dailynewshungary.com

Jan 08 2025
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Media authority criticises med

The media freedom reports published on Hungary in 2024 have shown the shortcomings detected in earlier reports, the Hungarian media authority NMHH said in a report published on Wednesday.

NMHH surveyed reports published in 2024 by the Center for Media Pluralism and Freedom, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, and the Civil Liberties Union for Europe’s new Media Freedom Report. Systemic issues reported in the NMHH report in 2024 were mostly also present this year, such as a lack of transparency in choosing the persons preparing country reports and assigning scores, the authority said.

Freedom House reports are usually based on the assessment of one expert, while Reporters Without Borders has refused to divulge information on the people involved in assigning scores, the report said. Further, the reports often repeat statements about earlier years, pertaining to periods outside of the report’s scope, the NMHH report said. Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report and that issued by Reporters without Borders were also insufficiently sourced, it said.

The reports also contained factual errors and omitted important facts and circumstances, it said. CLU said that the Hungarian media act failed to prevent market concentration, and the Media Pluralism Monitor said that the legislation failed to protect certain vulnerable groups, neither of which was true, NMHH said.

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