Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter
Issue 40-41
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law November 15,
1997
ALBANIA
-
I. Draft law stipulates “independent” TV radio steering
body.
II. Parliament approves radio-TV law amendment.
BULGARIA
-
I. Radio and TV appointments “unconstitutional.”
II. Journalists object to end of Russian, French
broadcasts.
CZECH REPUBLIC
-
I. Czechs must adopt EU television rules, says MEP.
HUNGARY
SLOVAKIA
I. Company rebuked for cutting power to Radio
Twist.
II. TV channels join renamed group of independents.
III. Cabinet says SRo, STV must pay for Telecom
services.
ALBANIA
I. Draft law stipulates “independent” TV radio
steering body.
The draft law on a public radio-television compiled
by the parliamentary mass media commission stipulates an independent political
structure of the steering council of this institution.
If this draft law is approved by parliament it will
make invalid the composition of the current steering council and the current
law on the state-owned Albanian Radio-TV.
Consequently, it will make invalid the latest political
amendments to divide the airtime based on the number of votes won in the
parliamentary elections.
The draft planned to be submitted to parliament in February
1998, when remarks from the Council of Europe are as well expected, aims
at creating real possibilities for a public television competitive and
independent of the current policy.
According to the draft law presented at the media commission,
three members of the steering council will be elected from among the RTV
[Radio-Television] workers, two from parliament, two from the Tirana University,
respectively from the law and journalism branches.
A series of state and non-state institutions will be
represented in this council by one member each.
ATA news agency, Tirana, October 10, 1997
II. Parliament approves radio-TV law amendment.
After more than four hours of a fierce debate and
interruption of sessions, the Albanian parliament today approved the Arbnori
amendment to the law “On the Status of Albanian Radio-Television.”
The chairman of the Socialist parliamentary group, Pandeli
Majko, after opposition by some left-wing deputies to the agreement, threatened
he would resign from the post of the chairman of his parliamentary group
if socialists did not vote the PD-PS [Democratic Party-Socialist Party]
compromise.
On 8th September 1997, the chairmen of the PS and PD
parliamentary groups, Majko and Pollo, signed an agreement on the Arbnori
agreement for the division of the airing in the Albanian Radio and Television
between the ruling parties and those of the opposition.
President Rexhep Mejdani asked the parliament, through
a law he proposed, legal airing both for the ruling and the opposition
parties.
ATA news agency, Tirana, September 17, 1997
BULGARIA
I. Radio and TV appointments “unconstitutional.”
The Constitutional Court unanimously declared unconstitutional
July’s election of new national radio and television chiefs on [6th November].
The judges declined to say what their ruling would lead
to. The questions that remain unanswered are: When does the court ruling
take effect, when will the media chiefs be dismissed and will their orders
remain in force?
The radio and television chiefs elected in July, Lilyana
Popova and Stefan Dimitrov, refused to comment the decision.
Lawyers commented that Popova and Dimitrov would have
to vacate their positions three days after the ruling is gazetted. Their
election was challenged by 50 MPs of the opposition Democratic Left, who
claimed that the replacement violated fundamental principles enshrined
in the constitution. National radio and television chiefs were to be elected
by a public council instead of by parliament under a media law enacted
by the preceding National Assembly. However, the Constitutional Court declared
some of its provisions unconstitutional, leaving a legal vacuum about the
replacement of media chiefs.
The present majority is planning to have a new Radio
and Television Act in place in December.
Speaking on Thursday, parliamentary chairman Yordan
Sokolov did not rule out a repeal of the entire media law. Another option
is to pass a new law or replace the provisions that have been declared
unconstitutional. Sokolov did not commit himself to predict which course
would be taken. The media law can be repealed quickly and Popova and Dimitrov
may be re-elected within a matter of days under the old statute of the
national media. Sokolov, who is a lawyer, said all orders issued by the
media chiefs would remain in force.
“A decision will be made as soon as possible to avoid
chaos in radio and television, but first we must acquaint ourselves with
the court’s reasoning,” said Ekaterina Mihailova, floor leader of the Union
of Democratic Forces. Media Committee Chairman Stoyan Raichevski said:
“The majority will not leave a vacuum either in the leadership of national
radio and TV or in the statutory framework.” Mihailova sees no reason why
new people should be nominated to the posts because, judging from the new
programming, Popova and Dimitrov are doing a good job.
As the court decision takes effect, the former radio
and TV chiefs, Vyacheslav Tounev and Ivan Tokadjiev, will head the two
media until they are replaced, Lyuben Kornezov, deputy floor leader of
the Democratic Left, told journalists. Answering a question, he said all
decisions taken by Popova and Dimitrov were legitimate because Constitutional
Court rulings are not retroactive.
This is the first and only case when an act of this
parliament has been declared unconstitutional, unlike its Socialist-dominated
predecessor, Yordan Sokolov said.
BTA news agency, Sofia, November 6, 1997
II. Journalists object to end of Russian, French
broadcasts.
The Union of Bulgarian Correspondents protested
today against a decision of the Bulgarian government to stop broadcast
of programmes of the Russian ORT [Russian Public TV] television company
and the French TV-5 channel.
A statement received by Itar-Tass from Secretary of
the Union of Bulgarian Correspondents Aleksandur Angelov says Bulgarian
viewers had two wonderful and different information windows to the world,
which were directly linked to two great cultures. The correspondents think
that competent state institutions should do everything possible from the
organizational, technical, economic and legal points of view and keep them
for Bulgarian television viewers.
It has been reported that ORT broadcasts in Bulgaria
stopped on 1st September on decision of the Bulgarian government, which
explained this move with financial reasons. Some three million dollars
have been allocated from the republican budget in the past seven years
to cover the spending on the channel and transmission. Nevertheless, many
people think the authorities were guided rather by political reasons and
tried to finally separate Bulgaria from the Russian information, political
and cultural influence.
ITAR-TASS news agency (World Service), Moscow, September 5, 1997
CZECH REPUBLIC
I. Czechs must adopt EU television rules, says
MEP.
A European Commission report has found that Czech
audiovisual legislation was not in keeping with EU requirements and a member
of the European Parliament, Philip Whitehead, has called on the Czech Republic
to adopt the European Union’s “Television Without Frontiers” directive.
Whitehead says he is particularly alarmed by the rapid growth of the private
TV station Nova, owned by the Nassau-based US company Central European
Media Enterprises Ltd. Nova’s programmes are populist, sensational and
rely heavily on American productions, Whitehead says. The EU wants a system
allowing the development of Czech work, Whitehead was quoted as saying.
The following is the text of a report by the Czech news agency CTK; subheadings
inserted editorially:
Adopting the EU’s directive “ Television Without
Frontiers” is in the interests of Czech audiovisual pluralism and the creative
development of Czech film and television, said European Parliament MEP
Philip Whitehead today, dissatisfied with Czech government inertia over
the issue.
Whitehead told CTK today that the directive’s requirement
that at least 50 per cent of all programmes shown by television stations
in EU countries have to be made in Europe was a boost to the domestic production
of television and film.
He said that the EU wanted a system that allowed the
survival and development of Czech work, work which enjoyed such an auspicious
reputation in Europe.
Whitehead emphasized the point that he wanted to see
not just one, but 50 “Kolya,” referring to the runaway critical and financial
success of the Czech production that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film
this year.
Those who were aiming for quick profits by showing cheap
American productions could not be allowed to call the shots, he added.
The Czech Republic, along with five other countries
including Hungary and Poland, was picked in July to be among the first
to join the EU. A European Commission report found several shortcomings,
however, and one of these was the state of the audiovisual media in the
Czech Republic.
Czech audiovisual legislation not in keeping with EU
requirements.
Czech audiovisual legislation was not in keeping with
EU requirements, the report read, adding that the Czech Republic had done
nothing in recent years to make amends. Such incompatibility means that
the Czech Republic is unable to take part in the EU Media II programme
for example, unlike Hungary, which is actively involved in the project.
Whitehead is a member of the EP’s parliamentary committee
on Czech entry to the EU, and is also an experienced film producer with
a number of documentaries about the Czech Republic under his belt, including
a recent film about Jan Masaryk, son of the first Czechoslovak President
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, and former Czechoslovak Foreign Minister and who
fell to his death in mysterious circumstances in 1948.
Whitehead contributed to the final version of the updated
directive, which came into effect on 1st January, 1997.
CME-owned TV Nova of special concern
He told CTK that he saw the same problems on the
Czech audiovisual scene as the EU had experienced over the last decade.
He said he was particularly alarmed by the rapid growth of the private
TV station Nova [owned by the Nassau-based US company Central European
Media Enterprises Ltd], which is linked to the only other private Czech
station, Prima, a situation which threatens a private monopoly.
The danger was that the financial interests of one party
threatened to dominate the entire scene, Whitehead said. He drew attention
to a remark by Nova’s director Vladimir Zelezny, who said that he would
launch a campaign against Czech entry into the EU if there was any talk
of the directive being applied to the Czech broadcasting media.
Private television must be governed by the basic same
rules, Whitehead said, to ensure healthy competition. This healthy competition
did not exist in the Czech Republic.
TV Nova did not want to accept any regulation whatsoever,
he said, adding that Nova’s programmes were extremely populist, sensational
and relied heavily on American productions.
Whitehead said that he did not want communist directives
on television to be replaced by directives from Wall Street, adding that
American companies were doing everything in their power to arm themselves
against the EU directive.
Even though they already had a huge slice of the global
film and TV market, the Americans wanted several EU members to be exempt
from the directive to cushion its impact.
Czechs cannot expect special treatment from the EU
The Czech Republic could not, however, expect to
receive any exception or grace period from the EU. Zelezny could launch
all the anti EU campaigns he wanted, Whitehead said, but he would be powerless
in the face of the directive. The Czech government should, therefore, begin
taking the EU’s calls seriously.
The British MEP was convinced, he said, that the battle
for implementing a high quota of European productions in the EU would help
maintain European creativity, pluralism and therefore democracy.
There was also a need, he said, for the Czech Republic
to aim for a healthy and democratic broadcasting system. CTK was unable
to contact Zelezny for a reaction to Whitehead’s comments. According to
a spokesman the TV Nova director is currently abroad.
CTK news agency, Prague, October 17, 1997
HUNGARY
I. TV2 stops terrestrial broadcasts.
The telecommunications chief directorate has invalidated
the licences issued earlier for Hungarian TV2’s broadcasting network. The
Antenna Hungaria Joint-Stock Company has to implement the decisions of
the telecommunications authorities and therefore it will be compelled to
stop the terrestrial transmission of Hungarian Television’s second programme
from 0000 hours tomorrow, that is, Tuesday [as heard—4th October was a
Saturday].
[TV2, Hungary’s first commercial channel, went on air
on 4th October, followed by a second commercial TV channel, RTL Club, on
7th October. TV2 took over the former second (terrestrial) channel of state-owned
national television, and promptly switched to satellite broadcasting, with
the result that less than 40 per cent of its former viewers can now watch
it. In terms of a law passed in 1996, the channel should have remained
available terrestrially, as before, in parallel with the satellite broadcasts,
for one month to give viewers time to adapt. But because by law the channel
had to be handed over by early October to the new commercial station, Hungary’s
National TV and Radio Council, ORTT, decided that viewers should not be
given the choice.]
BBC Monitoring Research, October 8, 1997
II. SBS sparks East Euro TV war.
By John Nadler
In a move that formally ushers a new player into
the contentious east European TV market, Scandinavian Broadcasting System
(SBS) —23% owned by the U.S. network ABC—launched the new commercial network
TV2 in Hungary on Oct. 4.
Even though Hungary is a market of just 10 million people
and 3.7 million TV households, SBS executives are ebullient over TV2 because
it has entered the market as a clear leader, something its other European
networks cannot boast.
“This is an opportunity early on in an emerging market
to launch a leading TV station,” said SBS president Martin Lindskog. “As
of now, we are not a dominant station in any of our other markets. In order
to be a dominant force in Europe, we have to have a No. 1 station.”
Ready to dominate
After winning the prized Magyar Televizio 2 (MTV2)
frequency in a privatization sell-off last June, SBS’ TV2 network is now
poised to dominate the Hungarian airwaves. Why? Out of the two frequencies
auctioned off three months ago, TV2’s channel reaches the most viewers
across the country and it is taking over a station that was the home to
one of Hungary’s most popular networks.
“We’ve won the No. 1 license so we have a position in
the viewer’s mind,” said Brian Frons, TV2’s programming consultant.
In short, SBS has been given the Hungarian TV market
on a silver platter.
‘Jewel in our crown’
TV2 is the “jewel in our crown,” said SBS chairman
Harry Sloan. “It’s our opportunity to succeed or fail with.”
Succeeding in Hungary won’t be as easy as it looks for
SBS. Luxembourg broadcaster CLT-Ufa, which won the second frequency up
for grabs, will premiere its own network, RTL Klub, on Wednesday with a
strong roster of local and RTL programming; MTV2, the state TV channel
that SBS is supplanting in this market, will go to satellite and be accessible
to as much as 50% of the market.
Hungary’s influential public TV channel MTV1 will continue
to broadcast terrestrially and is likely to hang on to a large chunk of
audience share with popular programs like “ER.”
U.S.-controlled media investor Central Europe Media
Enterprises (CME), denied a national license last June, purchased 89% of
the cable/satellite network TV3 and will reportedly reach as much as 60%
of Hungary’s TV market with more than 10,000 hours of hot programs (including
top international titles) that it purchased in anticipation of winning
a terrestrial frequency.
Hungary is a “competitive environment,” said TV2 programmer
Frons. “You have RTL. MTV1 has some terrific shows. These guys are not
going to roll over.”
Far from it. War has been declared both in court (CME
sued in July to keep SBS and RTL from going on the air) and the press (both
SBS and CME sponsored competing media junkets to Eastern Europe last week
to promote the launch of new TV stations).
SBS’ overnight arrival to a region once dominated by
CME, which controls networks in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Romania, Germany and Ukraine, has pitted the two broadcasters in a pitched
battle.
“This is a bitter rivalry,” said one media analyst.
SBS is already fighting CME on the airwaves and in the
courts in Slovenia.
Both SBS and TeleMunchen have made no secret of their
desire to expand elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe.
Something to prove
According to SBS’ leadership, Hungary has given
the network a stature that could create opportunities across Europe. “TV2
could affect our possibilities,” explained Lindskog. “If the station works
out well I think we will have proven to other countries that we are capable
of launching a high-quality station in a very short time.”
(As demanded by Hungary’s media law, SBS launched TV2
in 90 days.)
TV2 is barely on the air, but SBS is already receiving
offers. “After winning the license in Hungary, we’ve hadqueries,” added
Lindskog. “We’re in the minds of more people.”
Heavy on news
But first SBS will have to capture the hearts and
minds of Hungary’s viewers. TV2 is doing this with a program schedule that
emphasizes news and current affairs. “We want to be the news and information
leader in this market,” said Frons.
The news and weather show “Good Morning Hungary” will
appear on TV2 between 6 a.m. and noon every weekday. But to hedge their
bets, TV2’s schedule also includes foreign titles obtained through output
deals with Paramount and Universal, and locally produced programs such
as the relationship gameshow “Love at First Sight.”
Variety, October 6-12, 1997
III. TV licenses spark battle in Hungary; ex-U.S. envoy’s
firm sues over alleged politicization of contract awards.
By Christine Spolar; Washington Post Service
A pioneer of commercial television in Eastern Europe
has gone to court to lay bare just how and why broadcast licenses were
handed out in the region’s last untested market.
The court battle pits Central European Media Enterprises—controlled
by Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune and former
U.S. ambassador to Austria—against Hungary’s newly established broadcasting
board in a highly public dispute over privatization of the airwaves in
this former Communist country.
The debate over television broadcasting in Eastern Europe—particularly
over how to open the state-run airwaves to private enterprise—has led to
bitter battles over who manages state television, who sits on regulatory
boards and who decides how independent the broadcasts will be.
CME, as the Lauder enterprise is known, says the National
Radio and Television Commission broke the law by giving broadcast licenses
to two European media groups that had made far lower bids.
CME alleges, in essence, that board members—politicians
representing every major party in Hungary—decided which companies would
receive licenses and then rearranged scorecards to fit their votes. The
panel also ignored competition deadlines and allowed one of the companies
to submit a late bid, CME contends.
If the board’s votes were cast solely on the basis of
money, the Lauder group would appear to have a strong argument. CME bid
$20 million more than its competitors for the 10-year licenses. But broadcast
commissioners said in court this month that they were looking for more
than just money in creating the first private stations in Hungary.
“This is Eastern Europe, and here people are always
suspecting politics or corruption to explain things,” said Mihaly Revesz,
the head of the seven-member commission and a former adviser to Prime Minister
Gyula Horn. “In this case, I’m comfortable with the broadcast landscape.”
CME’s challenge could result in a trial. This month,
a judge ordered the broadcast board to submit minutes of its meetings concerning
the licenses and all applications.
Hungary has been bedeviled by politics in its efforts
to expand broadcasting into the private sector. It took far longer than
its neighbors to approve a media law that set up the broadcast board and
the rules for how licenses for private national stations—tough competition
for state-run television—could be sold.
But reports of the contract award this summer and in
particular the discrepancy in bids—spawned speculation among media analysts
about possible political deals within the commission and the integrity
of the licensing process.
“The media law has loopholes,” said Marton Kozak, a
sociologist who edits Media Figyelo, a media newsletter. “The rules of
the game weren’t clear, and the law allowed questions to be raised.”
The broadcasting battle also has reinforced broader
concerns about doing business in a country that has lured more Western
investment than any other Eastern European nation—and, at times, been tainted
by claims of government finagling.
The licenses, awarded after two rounds of voting, went
to CLT-Ufa, Europe’s biggest broadcasting group in which the German media
group Bertelsmann AG is a large investor, and to a media consortium headed
by Scandinavian Broadcasting System, which includes MTM Communications,
the largest television-production company in Hungary.
Representatives of both companies rebuffed suggestions
of favoritism and pointed out that, on paper, they had promised more public-service
programs.
But it is unclear from a review of the applications
just what constituted public-service programming, and station chiefs said
they were still trying to pull together their programs and could not discuss
specific shows.
CME is often regarded as the most experienced operator
in Eastern Europe—and at times one of the most criticized.
With local partners, it runs television stations in
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Slovenia, and it plans
to launch one in Poland in October. Its track record in the Czech Republic
and Romania, plus reports of a questionable local partnership in Ukraine,
intensified scrutiny here.
In Romania, CME’s independent station was linked to
the election last year of the first non-Communist government since the
collapse of communism in the region. In the Czech Republic, the popular
CME station has been chastised for carrying frivolous American fare and
for producing a misleading documentary on Gypsies that set off a wave of
emigration to Canada. Mr. Revesz said he had had long talks with the Czech
television chairman before he reviewed the applications. He said he was
aware of the Romanian experience. “I feel quite sure that we made the right
decision,” he said.
International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), October
1, 1997
SLOVAKIA
I. Company rebuked for cutting power to Radio
Twist.
The decision by the state-owned Slovenske Telekomunikacie
(ST) to interrupt electricity supplies to three radio stations [on 13th
October] “lacked a certain measure of correctness,” Peter Juras, the chairman
of the Slovak Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, told journalists
[on 22nd October].
The council wanted to ask the ST immediately to announce
future cutting off of electricity in advance, he added. The council only
learnt about the move two hours after the electricity had been cut to Twist
radio, N Radio and Radio Rebeca, Juras said.
Juras dismissed the criticism by the media highlighting
the fact that private radio stations had electricity cut off because they
failed to pay for telecommunication services, while the public corporations
Slovak Television and Slovak Radio, which owed tens of millions of crowns
to the ST, were not affected by the move.
In August one Slovak Radio transmitter in Presov, East
Slovakia, was cut off and the broadcasting of five transmitters was halved
because they did not pay, Juras said. After several days of difficult bargaining,
mediated by the council, the broadcasting was renewed, he added.
The council cannot elaborate on the stoppage of electricity
to the three private radio stations because it does not have information
on their agreements on the repayment of debt with the ST, Juras said.
The cutting off of electricity for Twist radio, which
often broadcasts programmes criticising the government, has caused uproar
among the opposition, which said the move was politically motivated.
CTK news agency, Prague, October 22, 1997
II. TV channels join renamed group of independents.
At its congress in Trnava [on 14th October], the
Slovak Association of Independent Radio Stations expanded to include new
members and, at the same time, transformed itself into the Slovak Association
of Independent Radio and Television Stations. The operators of terrestrial
Markiza Television and City Television joined the 14 member radio stations.
At the suggestion of the association’s hitherto president,
Andy Hryc, the congress elected Markiza Director-General Pavol Rusko to
this post. Following the session, he said that the association would strive
to unite all independent broadcasters. In the tense domestic political
situation, he thinks it is very important that all radio and television
broadcasting licence holders be affiliated in one joint special-interest
organization. “We would like to be a correct partner with regard to the
state institutions and the Slovak Council for Radio and TV Broadcasting,
Slovak Telecommunications and the Telecommunications Authority.”
In an resolution, the association condemns the disconnection
of three private radio stations and, in harmony with the Slovak Constitution,
demands equal status before the law for all of the media.
‘Narodna Obroda’, Bratislava, October 15, 1997
III. Cabinet says SRo, STV must pay for Telecom
services.
At its 137th session on [14th October] in Bratislava,
the Slovak government unequivocally decided that Slovak Radio (SRo) and
Slovak Television (STV) will have to pay for the services provided by Slovak
Telecom. It means that these institutions will have to ensure payments
of all outstanding debts under a payment calendar and search for ways of
paying these bills in future, chief director of the Telecommunications
Section at the Slovak Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications,
Peter Halus, told a press conference (held during the government session)
on [14th October] in Bratislava.
He added that the reason the government discussed this
matter was that SRo and STV are public institutions and they are regulated
by Slovak legislation.
Slovak Telecom finance director, Maria Rokusova, said
that as of 13th October SRo’s debts had reached 233m Slovak korunas and
STV’s 251m Slovak korunas.
According to Rokusova, the decision regarding the interruption
of the broadcasting of Radio Twist, N Radio and Radio Rebecca was issued
by the Slovak Telecom subsidiary Radio Communications, an independent economic
entity. The reason was that these private radio stations had not fulfilled
their obligations in accordance with the payment calendar.
TASR news agency, Bratislava, October 14, 1997