MTVA (Hungary)

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Media Service and Support Trust Fund
TypeState-owned corporation
IndustryMass media
PredecessorMT, MR, Duna TV, MTI
Founded1 January 2011; 11 years ago (2011-01-01)
Headquarters
Budapest
,
Hungary
Area served
Hungary
ServicesTelevision, radio, online
OwnerGovernment of Hungary
SubsidiariesDuna Media Service
Websitemtva.hu

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 State Office of Media and Communications (NMHH). MTVA was established on 1 January 2011, and from July 2015 the company's main task has been to finance and operate Duna Media Service [hu], Hungary's public-service broadcasting company. It is an active member of the European Broadcasting Union.

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]

History[]

MTVA headquarters in Budapest (2012)

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.[2][3][4] 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.[5]

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.[6] 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.

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.

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
  •  [hu]: Pop music and youth programming
  •  [hu]: Classical music
  •  [hu]: Folk, operetta and pop-folk
  •  [hu]: broadcasts programs aimed at ethnic minorities in Hungary
  •  [hu]: Parliamentary broadcasts and political events
  •  [hu]: 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 and family channel with night-time programming called M2 Petőfi
  • 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.
  •  [hu]: Sports channel established in July 2015
  •  [hu]: Sports channel established in September 2020
  •  [hu]: culture and educational programming, formerly sports

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.[7] 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.[8][9]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "New report: Hungary dismantles media freedom and pluralism". European Federation of Journalists (in British English). 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2022-01-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ "Original press release of MTVA on the merger in Hungarian". Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Media Law in Hungary | CMCS". medialaws.ceu.hu.
  6. ^ Polyák, Gábor; Nagy, Krisztina (January 2015). Hungarian Media Law (PDF). Budapest: Mérték Media Monitor Nonprofit Ltd. p. 30. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  7. ^ Tóth, Csaba (2014-11-27). "Court finds MTVA head of news programming forged the news". The Budapest Beacon (in American English). Retrieved 2022-01-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Hungary: airbrushing row highlights media law failings". Index on Censorship (in British English). 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2022-01-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Hunger strikers defiant in Hungary media protest". BBC News (in British English). 2011-12-29. Retrieved 2022-01-09.

External links[]

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