RTL Hungary today issued a statement to the press which ceetv.net publishes in full length:

Press release of RTL Magyarország
2014. 20th June

We reject any accusation that questions the faith of the staff of RTL in democracy and the freedom of press, the professional and ethical credibility and the patriotism of our associates.

The freedom of press is a national value, and we are all obliged to protect it.

In the past year RTL Hungary paid 8.9 billion forints to the state treasury

In the past year RTL Hungary paid 8.9 billion forints to the state treasury in the form of various kinds of taxes, duties, broadcastings fee, etc. We have never claimed that we paid this huge amount in the form of corporate tax, however, we paid corporate tax exactly to the extent it is required under the applicable laws in force.

Each year, RTL Hungary contributes to the public-burden sharing by billions

RTL Hungary rejects any kind of rumors that attempt to convince the public with the false suggestion that our company has not, or has insufficiently, participated in the public-burden sharing.

Our company will examine the possibility of having recourse against the rumors, and is considering legal action.

Our company continues to be committed to market-based operation, Hungarian television broadcasting, and independent news provision.

RTL defends its viewers

RTL Hungary continues to defend its viewers because we are convinced that the government was not authorized by its voters to take away from them Barátok közt, X-Faktor, Házon kívül, Híradó and other programs of RTL Klub, providing entertainment for several million people.

The genuine objective of media tax is the undermining of RTL, and the harsh restriction of the freedom of press.

The final, official version of the media tax was published only this week, after it was signed by the president of the republic. Under the law, the tax liability of RTL Hungary in this year is indeed lower than previously expected, according to our calculations it is around 600 million forints. However, a part of the accrued loss may be deducted from the tax basis of the media tax only once, this year, and as from 2015 we have to pay the originally calculated amount, which means that RTL would be burdened by more than 50% of the entire tax while our share in the advertisement market is only 15%. This continues to strongly contradict the principle of proportional public-burden sharing and, accordingly, we consider the law as expressly targeting our company, we think that it is discriminative, unfair, and its genuine objective is the undermining of RTL, and the harsh restriction of the freedom of press.

We firmly claim that RTL Hungary has always acted in compliance with the law, which is supported by the fact that the business conduct of our company is regularly scrutinized in the form of tax- and other types of investigations, and the legality of our operation is determined, by the Hungarian authorities.