HUF 115.4 million worth of grants for community and small community media service providers

In the second round of the tender available to community media service providers for financing their overhead and operation costs, the Media Council awarded a total of HUF 115.4 million worth of funds to 19 applicants. Non-refundable grants have been awarded to Körös Televízió of Csabacsűd, Karcag Televízió, Irány TV of Ládbesenyő, Füzesabonyi Városi Televízió, Rábaközi Televízió of Csorna, Trió-TV-Dunántúl of Sárvár, RTV Szekszárd and City TV of Budapest. The 11 successful radio station applicants include Berettyó Rádió, CREDO Rádió of Szombathely, Táska Rádió and Alpha Rádió of Székesfehérvár, Csillagpont Rádió of Miskolc, Halas Rádió, Rádió Szarvas, Európa Rádió of Sátoraljaújhely, Nyíregyháza and Debrecen, and Budapest’s 90.9 Jazzy Rádió, Trend FM and Magyar Katolikus Rádió broadcasting on the 102.6 MHz and 96.1 MHz frequencies.

Media supervisory decisions and those concerning radio frequencies

At this week’s session, the Media Council discussed a complaint submitted by a Member of Parliament regarding the Híradó news programme of Hír TV broadcasted in February. The complainant objected to the news headline “Anti-fascist demonstrators disrupted the commemorations of the Breakout Day”, and was of the opinion that the programme violated human dignity, and failed to comply with the rules applicable to providing information, the obligation to provide balanced information and the fundamental requirement to respect constitutional order. The NMHH Media Council did not initiate proceedings against the operator of Hír TV as they could not identify the opinion in the programme that violated human dignity and constitutional order. Regarding the governance over the obligation of providing information, the provision is declarative and based on the principle nature of the provision, media governance rules do not grant competence to the Media Council. The NMHH Media Council could not treat the case as a complaint regarding balanced information, as in such cases the complainant must first file a complaint to the media service provider, which did not happen in this particular instance.

At the request of the operators, the Media Council extended the media service provision rights of Médiacentrum Debrecen Kft. and FM7 Eger Kft. for the local radio frequencies of Debrecen 95.0 MHz and Eger 100.7 MHz, respectively, by five years until 31 July 2025; consequently, they will be broadcasting as commercial radio stations FM 95 - Rádió 1 Debrecen and 100.7 - BEST FM.

The winner of the tender for the community use of the Törökszentmiklós 96.4 MHz local frequency is Magyar Katolikus Rádió Alapítvány, which will air the programme of Szent István Rádió Kisújszállás connected into a network with Tokaj by way of expanding the coverage area.

The Media Council has completed the formal review of the bids submitted for the community tenders of local frequency Sopron 98.4 MHz and regional frequency Debrecen 106.0 MHz. In each procedure, the Board registered Karc FM Média Kft. as the sole bidder. The Media Council finalised the calls for tender for the community use of the local radio frequencies of Székesfehérvár 99.2 MHz and Cece 91.6 MHz as well as the regional frequency of Miskolc 90.4 MHz.

The full agenda of the Media Council’s weekly sessions can be found on the Board’s website, along with the minutes of the meetings and all decisions taken; the latest decisions will be published after the necessary validation and administration period.