In the national commercial radio tender, the Media Council performed the formal examination of the bids received and called on Hold Rádiós és Televíziós Reklám Kft. and Advenio Műsorszolgáltató Zrt. to submit missing information. Bidders have fifteen days from delivery to submit the missing information.

Pursuant to the Media Act, the administrative deadline for the process is eighty-five days from the submission of tender bids, i.e. 7 November, not including submissions of missing information and the suspension of the tender process due to requests for judicial review, with the possibility of one extension of up to twenty days. After the registration of formally valid bids, the tender process continues with the substantive examination. After the announcement of the final tender results, a public contract specifying the deadline within which the winning radio station must start broadcasting will be concluded with the winner within 45 days. For further information on the rules governing the tender process, refer to the NMHH’s tendering page.

Two regional radio stations in Budapest to change name

The Media Council granted its approval to the amendment of the public contract with Rádió Q Kft. broadcasting on the regional radio frequency Budapest 99.5 MHz, thereby permitting the broadcaster to change its name to Retro Rádió as of 18 December.

The Council also amended Favorit Masters Kft’s public contract upon the request of the radio station broadcasting on the regional frequency Budapest 95.8 MHz; as a result, the station continues broadcasting under the name Rock FM as of 15 December.

Magyar Hírlap publishes content discriminatory against gay people

The Media Council deemed the article “Eddig és ne tovább! Ideje levernünk a cölöpöket“ (So Far and No Further! It Is Time to Lay the Groundwork!) published in the 10 July issue of the daily newspaper and the online site of Magyar Hírlap to be discriminatory and therefore imposed a fine of HUF 150,000 the newspaper’s publisher and required it to publish a statement on the infringement and remove the article from its site. The article’s author, when discussing Budapest Pride, put forward proposals for the restriction of the fundamental rights of gay people. The newspaper shall publish the statement on the front page of www.magyarhirlap.hu within three days of entry into force of the resolution in a way in which the entire information can be read continuously for a period of seven days from its publication.

The media service provider of Story5, 4-es csatorna and Galaxy TV, Digital Media and Communications Zrt., once again aired too loud commercials a total of 12 times between July and September. Due to these repeated infringements, the service provider must pay a fine of HUF 360,000.

When imposing a fine, the Council always determines the form and extent of the fine with due consideration to all the circumstances of the specific case and employing the principle of progressiveness and proportionality.