Horrible media-related bill passed in my country

Today, at 3AM, a new media bill was accepted here, in Hungary. It consists of these two ridiculous regulations effective 1st January:

- Basically, news about crimes can't take up more than 20% of the total amount of news in any news program in any kind of media. Which is just ludicrous. What's next? Ministry of Happiness?

- Anything in any media can be reported by anyone on the grounds that it violated some hazy rule (the section which explains what can be regarded as a violation is deliberately ambiguous). Nationwide television and radio stations can be punished up to 200 million Hungarian Forints ($1 million ballpark) - any random person who owns a blog, writes down their opinion and gets reported by some moron can be punished up to 50 million Hungarian Forints (approx. $200.000)!

It's so clear that this bill was passed by the politicians to discourage people to express their opinion, because the government considers that dangerous/unwanted.

The saddest part is: we've been through this already. From 1945 to 1989, Hungary was under a communist regime, so it was forbidden to openly criticize the government and/or its actions. What the fuck are they thinking passing a bill like this in 2000 fuckin' 10?

My only hope is that this morning in reaction to these news, the main newspapers of the country have refused to lay down (more or less in unison), and that no matter what they try, they can't regulate the internet.

The intentions of this bill (and other recent actions by the hungarian government) are horrifying though. I don't want to live in a dictatorship - and no, I'm not exaggerating here, if things continue to happen this way, a full-blown dictatorship is not too far down the road (we're talking 2 or 3 years).

(I briefly considered to open this as an IJBM thread, but the situation is more serious than that)

Are there any protest movements starting against it? If not you should try to start one in your area.

EDIT: What other recent actions?

edited 21st Dec '10 7:05:29 AM by GameChainsaw

Yes, there is a protest going on in the capital about it, and one of the largest radio stations in the country decided to hold a 1 minutes silence in their most-listened morning news program as a protest.

Other recent actions of the government include openly stealing working people's pension. It's not a joke: they said that everyone who gives money every month to any company which keeps it on a separate account and will later pay it as pension must move to the state pension program. Basically, all the savings accumulated on those accounts will be given to the state.

Which is outrageous, on one hand because the amount of pension given by the state will be at best an insultingly low amount every month, but the whole state pension program will most likely go bankrupt in a few years so this means that after you retire, you're supposed to live getting zilch, nada, nothing, semmi (in Hungarian) pension. Oh, and on the other hand? It's my money. Don't even dare to think about touching it!

In general, our current government frequently introduces laws which are ''retroactively effective''. I don't even dare to guess what comes next anymore...

edited 21st Dec '10 7:27:46 AM by Sati1984

Whee. There's a reason ex post facto laws are actually explicitly banned in many nations' constitutions.

Meanwhile, I found this article about the situation, and the last sentence put a smile on my face:

The government argues that the new law is long overdue, saying Hungary's legislation needs to catch up with rapid developments in media technology and content.

Wow. Just wow. Guess what's the only thing this new law doesn't do. Yep, it's catching up with technology.

And that's why they're gonna lose. They can't control the internet with these ancient methods. They can't.

edited 21st Dec '10 7:35:41 AM by Sati1984

@Chalkos: Oh, thanks for reminding me:

Recently, this government made some modifications in the constitution of our country exactly for this reason. Basic rights and parts were abandoned (like the one you were talking about), and new, shiny bullshit was inserted in order to ensure that they can do anything they damn please.

So, no. The constitution can't protect the Hungarian people anymore. Man, this situation sucks.

Feck. Thats awful. Especially the pension bit.

(What kind of monster steals peoples pensions?... oh yeah, thats right, Mr Brown.)

I couldn't find any info about pension stealing on his trope page, so can you help me out? Did he really do it?

He raised taxes on peoples pension funds in 2006, vastly reducing the value of private pensions. You can see details of it in this Telegraph article.

I cant help to look at your nickname...

Well, considering that right now Hungary is ruled by few of the closest things to neonazis, this is nothing surprising.

Meh. Just vote for the other party, or something.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Street_protests_in_Hungary_over_PM's_taped_lies

Oh, wait...

Let's just say that Hungary sucks. A lot.

Yes, there is a protest going on in the capital about it, and one of the largest radio stations in the country decided to hold a 1 minutes silence in their most-listened morning news program as a protest.

Those radiomen who held one minute silence? They are about to get fucking fired for it. (link in hungarian).

You see, there is freedom of speech, but there Ain't No Rule that in a media corporation, your boss can't fire you if he doesn't like your stye of speech. And if the corporation happens to be state property...

edited 21st Dec '10 9:46:47 AM by EternalSeptember

That's a nice lil loophole they've got going for themselves there. My sympathies to the Hungarian people, I had no idea things were as bad as all that.

@Game Chainsaw: That's not a nice thing to do. But the government of Hungary have certainly out-stolen him...

@Zhe Toralf: Yeah, I was born in that year. Little did I know about what a friggin' brilliant book 1984 is. And this is because my username is actually S@ti, but few online services can stand "@" in an username, so I just threw 84 and 1984 after my name. And in case of TV Tropes, I didn't even try anymore. So the 1984 in my username is not in connection with the book.

@Eternal September: No, the firing thing was a hoax, they are not fired. I follow the guy on tumblr and twitter who did the silence, that's how I know. Unless his accounts were cracked and given to Winston Smith, the situation is not that bleak...

... but still horrible.

Pensions are going bankrupt. EVERYWHERE. You're not alone...

Can't you appeal that law to the EU supreme court?

Huh. I thought it might attract negative attention from other EU countries, but... I would never have thought of that.

It might be time for an armed revolution then. It's clear the government is trying to legal it's way into being THE government so your only choices are voting in someone else (If that is even possible) or fighting.

Whoa whoa whoa. I hate it when people play the armed revolution card. You play the revolution card when lives are threatened by the government just for speaking out, and you need to take those bastards out of power now.

Hungary is nowhere near that bad yet.

>>Whoa whoa whoa. I hate it when people play the armed revolution card. You play the revolution card when lives are threatened by the government just for speaking out, and you need to take those bastards out of power now.

Honestly most European countries need that lol. I'd like to see the French government BURN for its' colonialism in Africa & suppression of regional langusges. Occitan independence & self-assertation xD

I thought the Hungarian bill was only supposed to deal with public government owned) news services. I guess not.

In related news, aren't they contesting a disputed election in Belarus?

edited 21st Dec '10 2:23:10 PM by BalloonFleet

There's no need for a violent uprising in France. There's a democratic process there. And a democratic process in Hungary. If there's enough public will, the bastards can just be voted out of power. There's legal recourse to do that.

Its places without democracy that resort to violence is necessary.

And also, colonialism is sort of an age in the past. The problem is not ongoing, so there is no purpose in violence. If you want to talk about debt-slavery...

As for oppression of regional languages... thats a different issue, and one I know nothing of. But again its nothing a determined enough political movement couldn't put right, as you have that power in a democracy.

If people are too apathetic to change things democratically, you can forget about armed revolution.

I thought violent uprising was the democratic process of France.

You're thinking of Turkey. >_>

No, thiers is military coups...

And Pakistan, don't forget Pakistan.

(Actually... yeah, thats military coups again.)

If you really want to combat the government of Hungary, go out and either join a rival political party you agree with (or can tolerate) or organise a pressure group against their policies. (or join one if one is already underway.)

edited 21st Dec '10 2:48:21 PM by GameChainsaw