MTVA (Hungary)

Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap (MTVA) (English: Media Services and Support Trust Fund) is a Hungarian fund company owned and financed by the Hungarian state, through the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (Hungarian: Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság, NMHH). MTVA was established on 1 January 2011, and from July 2015 the company's main task has been to finance and operate Duna Média, Hungary's state public company. It is an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap
TypeState-owned corporation
IndustryMass media
PredecessorMT, MR, Duna TV, MTI
Founded1 January 2011 (2011-01-01)
Headquarters
Budapest
,
Hungary
Area served
Hungary
ServicesTelevision, radio, online
OwnerGovernment of Hungary
SubsidiariesDuna Média
Websitemtva.hu

A 2019 report by the European Federation of Journalists stated that news coverage of Hungarian public broadcaster is not balanced, opposition politicians' viewpoints are nearly absent from the reports, and there is a lack of transparency over the funding and work of MTVA. The report concluded that the "public service media have been deformed into state media."[1] Moreover, MTVA withdrew its participation from the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest amid a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment among the leadership of Hungary and MTVA; while no official reason for the withdrawal was given by the broadcaster, an inside source speaking with the website Index.hu speculated that the contest was considered "too gay" for MTVA to participate.[2]

History
Further information: Magyar Rádió, Magyar Televízió, Duna (TV channel), and Magyar Távirati Iroda

MTVA brought together four public media companies in Hungary: Magyar Rádió (MR), Magyar Televízió (MT), Duna Televízió (Duna TV) and Magyar Távirati Iroda (MTI). At the same time, MTI was given the exclusive right to produce news content for the public broadcasters.[3][4][5] According to Hungarian politicians, the establishment of MTVA should help clean up the country's "dysfunctional public broadcasting sector". However, the media reform received criticism from foreign politicians and media experts, who believed the reform limited the independence of broadcasters and gave the government greater control over the country's public broadcasters.[6]

The four broadcasters continued as four divisions under MTVA, but on 1 July 2015 were merged into one joint broadcasting company: Duna Media. This nonprofit organization is the legal successor to each of the four formerly separate entities managed by the MTVA.[7] The Duna TV channel become the main generalist channel, replacing the first Magyar Televízió channel M1, the oldest in Hungary, which changed its format/genre and assumed continuous broadcast of news related programming.[8]

Among other things, MTVA is responsible for distributing funds and resources to the various departments in Duna Media. Most people who work for Duna Media are also employed through MTVA. According to the Hungarian National Assembly, MTVA wants to have a relationship with its British counterpart, BBC.[9]

Services
The logos of the radio and TV stations funded by MTVA

Its activities include radio, television, news agencies and online services as listed below:

Radio

MR operated 7 radio stations:

  • Kossuth Rádió: News and entertainment
  • Petőfi Rádió: Pop music and youth programming
  • Bartók Rádió: Classical music
  • Dankó Rádió: Folk, operetta and pop-folk
  • Nemzetiségi Rádió: broadcasts programs aimed at ethnic minorities in Hungary
  • Parlamenti Rádió: Parliamentary broadcasts and political events
  • Duna World Rádió: broadcasts news and Hungarian programs to Hungarians abroad

Television
  • Duna: Duna Media's main generalist channel for television.
  • Duna World: international channel which caters to Hungarians abroad
  • M1: broadcasts news, debates and current affairs programming.
  • M2: children channel
  • M2 Petőfi: channel for young people
  • M3: broadcasts movies and historical programs, taken from the archives of Magyar Televízió and Duna TV. As a TV channel, it closed down on 30 April 2019 and launched as an online service the following day.
  • M4 Sport: Sports channel established in July 2015
  • M4 Sport+: Sports channel established in September 2020 which caters to Hungarians abroad
  • M5: culture and educational programming

News agency

Internet
Hirado.hu logo (2016)
  • Hirado.hu – A popular news portal related to the news program of the same name
  • Mediaklikk.hu – Official MTVA website
  • M4sport.hu – Official site of M4 Sport
  • Petofilive.hu – Official site of Petőfi Rádió
  • Teletext.hu – Teletext service

Controversies

In 2011, MTVA's news editor Dániel Papp manipulated a news segment about politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit to make it look like he fled the scene without an answer after being questioned on accusations of child abuse. Subsequently uncut footage showed that Cohn-Bendit actually replied to the reporter's questions and denied the accusations. Papp was later promoted.[10] In the same year, Zoltán Lomnici, the former president of the Supreme Court was blurred out from a report about a press conference he was co-hosting. The censoring of Lomnici was suggested to be politically motivated.[11][12]

In 2019 a leaked audio recording made during the run-up to European Parliament elections showed a senior MTVA editor, Balazs Bende informing reporters that the institution does not favor the opposition's list and the reporters should work accordingly. Bende instructed the reporters to produce content using the "appropriate" narrative and methodology, especially on topics like Brussels and migrants.[13][14]

See also

References
  1. "New report: Hungary dismantles media freedom and pluralism". European Federation of Journalists. 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  2. Walker, Shaun; Garamvolgyi, Flora (27 November 2019). "Hungary pulls out of Eurovision amid rise in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric". The Guardian.
  3. "Hungarian public service media companies merge - MTVA". Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015. The merger ensures that the companies do not terminate their operation without having a legal successor.
  4. "Original press release of MTVA on the merger in Hungarian". Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  5. Gábor Polyák (2015-01-22). "New Amendment to the Media Act". Mérték Média Monitor. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  6. "Media Law in Hungary | CMCS". medialaws.ceu.hu.
  7. Polyák, Gábor; Nagy, Krisztina (January 2015). Hungarian Media Law (PDF). Budapest: Mérték Media Monitor Nonprofit Ltd. p. 30. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  8. "MTVA - Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap portálja - 2015. július 1. – Duna Médiaszolgáltató Zártkörűen Működő Nonprofit Részvénytársaság elnevezéssel egyesül a négy közszolgálati médiaszolgáltató". 2016-10-06. Archived from the original on 6 October 2016. Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  9. Juli, Mészáros (2021-10-04). "BBC-osztályú higgadt elemzés a közmédiában: Karácsony Gergely egy "álmatagságát millió dolláros bölcsészmosollyal kompenzáló óriáslajhár"". 444 (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  10. Tóth, Csaba (2014-11-27). "Court finds MTVA head of news programming forged the news". The Budapest Beacon. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  11. "Hungary: airbrushing row highlights media law failings". Index on Censorship. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  12. "Hunger strikers defiant in Hungary media protest". BBC News. 2011-12-29. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  13. "RFE/RL Probe Finds Journalists At Hungarian State Broadcaster Instructed On News Coverage". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  14. Balogh, Eva S. (2020-11-14). "Orbán's propagandists at work at the "public" television station". Hungarian Spectrum. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
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