* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Alumni from our two week course ‘Economic and Political Reporting from Southeast Europe’ in London went to Brussels for two days to meet with various officials are now writing about their experiences.
Hungary took all the bad bits of law from various countries and put them in their law, Marc Gruber, the European Director of the International Federation of Journalists, told us. He was speaking about the new media law in Hungary which he said was censoring journalists and the media. “There is no rule of law any more”, he said.
“The Media Council, named by members of Parliament ruled by one party, can punish journalists and it is forbidden to insult religious or ideological feelings, whatever that means.” How an EU member state that has signed up to all the EU requirements about the rule of law can change press freedom on its own, remained an unanswered question, he said. He and his Federation would keep asking that question in Brussels in the name of other journalists. “I am working for you in Brussels,” he said.
