Dear Vice-President Jourova,

Your recently expressed concerns about European values in Hungary and about the functioning of democratic institutions are shared by many Hungarians and probably the silent majority agree with you!

As you have rightly pointed out “The plurality of the media market is at high risk in Hungary”. Not having an impartial objective media – neither public, nor private – negatively affects the functioning of democracy and ultimately elections, since voters are not able to make informed decisions.

As MEP Magdalena Adamowicz in her recent report pointed out “Strengthening Media Freedom Protection of Journalists in Europe, Hate Speech, Disinformation and the Role of Platforms” is probably one of the most important issues for the future of the European Union!

We are at the crossroads and if we fail to establish a reliable, impartial, information system, independent from anti-EU political forces inside and out-side of the EU our Union will be teared apart.

One possible solution

One possible solution is to support independent media, unfortunately in some of the EU countries it is too late. Authoritarian governments completely conquered the media – printed and electronic alike -, turned the public service media into a government propaganda machinery financed from European taxpayers’ money. The commercial media went along because the government has countless ways to control their revenues, and some countries are simply just too small to solve this problem alone. The few independent on-line portals which are owned by the editors are suffocating and live in existential sometimes physical fear and this is not in some third-world dictatorship but right here in the EU, in countries like Orban’s Hungary.

The other possible solution

The other possible solution is to pressure the EU decision makers that the EU has a role to play in this field for its own survival. This is why we suggest the establishment of a European Public Media independent from national governments and from market pressure as well. It is not cheap but if you compare it with the damage fake news and anti-EU propaganda cause it would be worth to spend it. It should be financed from the EU budget and all EU citizens should have access to it on a universal basis as EU citizen in every EU language, all national broadcasters should make it available free of charge on a “must carry basis” With a number of concerned citizens, we have established Prosum Foundations of which one the objectives is the establishment of European Public Broadcasting and News Service (EPBNS). We believe European politicians like Ms Adamowicz and yourself should join forces with concerned citizens and civil organizations to promote this idea and put it on the agenda of EU decision makers and bring it into the public discourse.

Sincerely Yours, 

Dr István Teplán 

President Prosum Foundation