Hungary's Magyar promises to suspend state media broadcasts, ensure press freedom

Hungary's Magyar promises to suspend state media broadcasts, ensure press freedom

By Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves

Reuters

BUDAPEST, April 15 (Reuters) - Hungary's election winner Peter Magyar said ‌on Wednesday his government will suspend state media ‌broadcasts, pass a new media law and ensure press freedom ​after his cabinet takes power.

"Every Hungarian deserves a public service media that broadcasts the truth," Magyar said on Kossuth state radio, where outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban ‌had been a ⁠weekly guest for the past 16 years while opposition politicians rarely got invited.

"We ⁠will need a little time to pass a new media law, a new media authority and setting up ​the professional ​conditions for state media ​actually do what it ‌is meant to do," Magyar added.

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Magyar's TISZA (Respect and Freedom) party won a landslide victory in Sunday's election, ending Orban's 16-year rule.

Critics say public media served as a government mouthpiece under Orban and accused him ‌of presiding over the undermining ​of independent media as allies ​of his Fidesz ​party took control of private outlets - charges ‌he denied.

Orban's landslide defeat handed ​Magyar a ​strong majority in Hungary's 199-seat legislature, opening the door for an overhaul of a system that ​critics in the ‌European Union said subverted democratic norms.

(Reporting by ​Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Sonali ​Paul and Andrew Heavens)

 

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