Mediaforum is participating in the nomination process for members of the Independent Public Media Board.
Under the amended media law, the regulatory framework for public service media will soon be overhauled: ownership rights will be exercised by the newly established Independent Public Media Board (FKT). The FKT will have nine members: three nominated by the ruling party, three by the opposition, and an additional three by professional and civil society organizations active in the media field.
The candidates will be interviewed at a public hearing by the existing Public Service Council (KT)—which has been partially expanded following the legislative amendment; after this, only three candidates will be presented to the relevant parliamentary committee. The members of the FKT will ultimately be elected by Parliament.
It is impossible to predict in advance how many valid nominations will be submitted for these three positions, nor are the exact procedures and selection criteria clear. However, the members of Mediaforum, which represents independent media outlets, are committed to the democratic renewal of the media system as a whole; therefore, the association took advantage of the opportunity provided by the law and submitted its nomination to the KT.
Our nominee is Viktor Bálint, co-managing director of Codecool, who previously served, among other roles, as communications director at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, publishing director at Sanoma, and editor-in-chief and journalist at FigyelőNet. In addition, he has been a member of the external advisory board of the Direkt36 investigative journalism center for many years and previously served as chairman of the Direkt36 supervisory board.
Fulfilling the FKT’s statutory duties primarily requires business, financial, and managerial experience. We were looking for a candidate who is exceptionally well-prepared in these areas, is familiar with the media world, and has ties to the circle of independent newsrooms that have suffered the harshest attacks from the Orbán governments in recent years. Viktor Bálint meets the strict conflict-of-interest rules set forth by law (he has no political past and is not an active player in the media market); as a successful businessman, he has no ties to any political lobby or media interest group. We would like to take this opportunity to thank him for accepting our invitation! His professional expertise and impartiality will be a tremendous asset to the newly formed FKT.
Since the nomination form submitted to the KT provides surprisingly limited space for candidates to introduce themselves (the resume may be up to 1,500 characters including spaces, and the candidate’s personal motivation and vision for the function and goals of public media may be up to 2,000 characters in total), we have made more detailed versions of both documents available here for a more thorough understanding.