Hungary’s government wants peace with RTL Klub There is little doubt that by broadcasting news critical of the government RTL Klub has contributed to the shocking decrease in Fidesz’s popularity, but numerous other factors also contribute to the ruling party’s woes, including the increasing levels of poverty, the US government issuing visa bans for members of the Hungarian government, and numerous corruption scandals plaguing members of the ruling party. Despite yielding differing results, pollsters unanimously showed that Fidesz’s popularity had reached lows in the mid- to high 20 percent range by December. In late 2014 public opinion polling companies had found that the ratings of Fidesz had plummeted to all-time lows, in some cases bottoming out with month-to-month double-digit drops. If RTL Klub can continue this experiment, we will see what changes this brings about,” Haraszti says. That reaches more viewers than ATV and Klub Radio. “These political stories are being watched by twenty percent of the population. Media freedom and human rights expert Miklos Haraszti points out that RTL Klub’s decision to “fight back” by running stories critical of the government and government officials is a historic first.
All this, coupled with a wildly unpredictable business and legal environment, has resulted in a “chilling effect” in the field of journalism in Hungary. Independent media outlets in Hungary run the constant risk of facing civil and criminal penalties for running stories critical of Hungarian authorities. Hungary’s media landscape is dominated by government-sponsored and state-run media outlets which are, in one way or another, dependent on state advertisements to turn a profit. The broadcaster’s relevant and quasi-investigative style of reporting during its broadcast of the nightly news has been a thorn in the side of Hungary’s Fidesz government for a number of reasons. Ironically, the RTL Klub story has become a flagship for those championing media freedoms in Hungary. If the tax remains next year, it will wipe out the company’s profits, says Gerken. While the government of Hungary insists the purpose of the tax is to ensure that all players in the market contribute to the collective burden-sharing in Hungary, RTL Klub CEO Dirk Gerkens (pictured) points out that 90 percent of the revenues generated by the tax are paid by RTL Klub despite only having a 15 percent share in the market. Originally 40 percent of advertising revenues, the government increased it to 50 percent following Bertelmann’s official complaint to the European Commission. The government of Hungary has reportedly been in talks with German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, owner of Hungary’s largest commercial television broadcaster, RTL Klub.īertelsmann filed an official complaint with the European Commission last year regarding the special advertising tax adopted by Hungary’s Fidesz-led government, which essentially targets RTL Klub’s advertising revenues.
– Oliver Fahlbusch, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications & Marketing, RTL Group In any case, RTL will continue with its independent news reporting.” Please understand that we do not comment beyond this at this point of time. It would definitely help Hungary if these talks would lead to a sensible solution - this means: a review of the advertising tax without further interventions from the EU. “Over the past weeks, there have been talks between RTL Group and the Hungarian Government about the advertising tax.
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