Awwal 04, 1432 H/Feb 07, 2011, SPA -- Hungary will this week present EU officials with proposals for changes to its controversial media law, the Hungarian news agency MTI reported Monday, according to dpa. The international controversy over the law - which critics says muzzles press freedom - has clouded Hungary's debut at the EU's rotating presidency, and drawn attention to supposedly authoritarian tendencies in Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government. Experts from Hungary and the European Union had met earlier Monday after Hungary last week pledged to amend the bill. EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the European Commission would examine the proposals and ask for further talks with the government. A spokesman for Kroes said that "a process" had been started and that the commission hoped the law could be brought into line with EU regulations. Monday's talks had focused on a possible breach of the bloc's technical rules on broadcasting. Kroes had claimed the law breached the EU's rules on the registration of electronic media and the interpretation of the journalistic term "balance." Brussels has threatened legal action if the commission's concerns about the possible breaches are not dealt with. However, criticism of a new media regulatory committee, which can impose potentially ruinous fines on offending media, is not part of the commission's enquiry. Prime Minister Orban personally appointed the head of the committee and the panel is made up entirely of members of his ruling FIDESZ party.
