András Horváth has been appointed interim head of Hungary’s public service media, the Ministry of Social Relations and Culture announced. He will oversee the restructuring of the public broadcaster, with the stated aim of restoring its original remit after 16 years and ensuring it once again serves the public, reports Magyar Nemzet.

The permanent management of the public service media will be chosen through an open selection process by the new Independent Board for Public Service Media, which, according to the Ministry’s commitment, will be preceded by a social and professional dialogue. The Ministry says the reorganization of the public service media will be carried out neither by the government nor by the Ministry, but by a temporary team of experts.

The work of the interim management will be guided by the following tasks:

Reviewing the public service media’s previous working practices and uncovering any abuses. Furthermore, it is responsible for the merger of Duna Media Zrt. and MTVA.

Strict impartiality, adherence to journalistic ethics, and the restoration of objective and credible reporting.

Ensuring the transparent and cost-effective operation of public service media during the transitional phase.

According to the statement, the aim for the coming months is to facilitate a social and professional dialogue under the coordination of Judit Grósz, the ministerial representative responsible for public service media. Over the weekend, the previous heads of the public service media were replaced. To coordinate these changes, Grósz, who came from RTL, was appointed ministerial representative about a month ago,

without consultation, in a non-transparent manner, and on a party-political basis. This is how the TISZA majority elected the new head of the public service media.
This is exactly the opposite of what TISZA promised the Hungarian people,” said Alexandra Szentkirályi in response to the decision. The Fidesz MP and Chair of the Parliament’s Culture Committee explained that they had requested sufficient time be allowed for the application process and that the candidates be made known to the general public so that the committee could also interview them in person.

“The decision on the TISZA candidate had to be made under undue haste, based solely on a simple CV and a cover letter. This is a leadership role in which the appointee will, single-handedly, decide on tens of billions of forints and the fate of several thousand people,” the opposition politician made clear.

As she noted, several questions were raised regarding the basis on which the interim director is granted full authority to manage the public service media and how this might be envisaged in concrete terms, yet the MPs from the governing party “responded only with confusing evasions, in which they described the candidate as the ‘head responsible for the vetting process’ or even compared him to an ‘insolvency administrator.’”

She emphasized that this was factually incorrect, as he possesses full managerial authority under the law. In her view, against this backdrop, it was merely the icing on the cake that the governing party’s candidate concluded his cover letter with the following words:

Over the past two years, I have worked on various projects related to the regime change.”

Thus, the lawyer András Horváth, who previously had neither professional nor personal ties to the public service media, became the sole – politically appointed – head of Hungarian public service media, explained the Fidesz MP.