NEGLIGENT MANAGEMENT AND INTIMIDATION IN PUBLIC TELEVISION

’Apart from handling public funds negligently and carelessly, Imre Ragáts vice president and Zoltán Rudi news director try to intimidate workers who call attention to illegal actions’ said to Magyar Nemzet Balázs Nagy Navarro who is one of the contenders for the post of president of the Hungarian Television Company (MTV).

The television expert has revealed the anomalies in a letter to the board of trustees of the public television.
’In the past few months under the interim leadership of the Hungarian Television Company the complete financial, professional, and moral crisis has deepened’, said Balázs Nagy Navarro to Magyar Nemzet. ’While MTV, covering more than 80 pc of its budget from public funds, closed the 2002 fiscal year with a loss of almost HUF 13 billion, Imre Ragáts managing president whose legitimacy on his post is questionable, and Zoltán Rudi, at present news-and programme director, early this year concluded contracts of HUF several hundred millions with external producers’, said the foreign news editor. While they plan the dismissal of several hundred people and stop producing several cultural programmes they order new ones from external firms and support features forbidden by the media law. While the public television owes billions of forints to different companies, they employ new people with salaries of millions of forints though MTV employs more than 1500 people now and they re-employ people who have left MTV with a huge severence pay. Features are anchored by editors of cheap tabloids paid from public funds while employees have to do unpaid extra work on free days. ’The corruption of the leaders is backed up by the political power and people are intimidated who speak up to reveal illegal actions’, said Mr Nagy Navarro. He has constitutional concerns as well about the HUF 75 000 nomination fee for the post the the president of the MTV and reacting to his complaint the ombudsman, Barnabás Lenkovics turned to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office which ordered an investigation in the matter. Mr Nagy Navarro wants to turn to the court to annul the competition for the presidency of MTV because of the violation of the law.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó