Hungary’s parliamentary Committee on Culture voted on Thursday to appoint András Horváth as the interim head of the country’s public media organizations during their ongoing restructuring.
The committee approved the nomination by seven votes to four, with all seven supporting votes coming from members backing the proposal submitted by the Tisza Party.
Horváth will oversee both Duna Médiaszolgáltató Nonprofit Zrt and the Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA) until the government’s planned reorganization of the public media system is completed.
Committee chair Alexandra Szentkirályi of Fidesz said neither Fidesz nor its coalition partner KDNP nominated a candidate because they objected to the selection process. She criticized the decision to proceed without first adopting formal procedural rules or holding public hearings with the nominees.
Szentkirályi argued that although the government had previously promised transparency, professionalism and broad public consultation during the debate over the legislation restructuring public media, those principles had not been reflected in the appointment process.
The opposition Our Homeland party nominated Sarolta Virághalmy for the position. She received only one vote in favour, from her party’s representative, while seven committee members voted against her and three abstained.
Our Homeland lawmaker István Szabadi said a prompt appointment was necessary but argued that more time should have been devoted to the nomination process, including hearings for the candidates.
Fidesz committee member Krisztina Csibi also criticized the absence of a public selection process and personal interviews, noting that the successful candidate would bear significant responsibility.
Defending the rapid appointment, Tisza Deputy Márk Radnai said the interim leadership’s primary task would be to conduct a legal and institutional review of the public media system, which he described as operating with an annual budget of approximately HUF 160 billion and relying on overpriced external contracts.
Radnai said the review would prepare the way for a transparent public competition to appoint permanent leaders after professional and public consultations. He added that the interim leadership would focus on governance and institutional operations rather than editorial content.
According to Radnai, the broader restructuring aims to strengthen the independence, transparency and public service role of Hungary’s state media.
Legislation submitted by three Tisza Party MPs on 12 June and approved by parliament 11 days later provides for replacing Duna Médiaszolgáltató Nonprofit Zrt and MTVA with two new organizations: Magyar Rádió és Televízió Nonprofit Zrt, which will operate as the public broadcaster, and MTI Nonprofit Zrt, which will serve as the national news agency.
Horváth’s mandate will remain in force until the new organizations are formally established and their permanent leadership is appointed.
According to the biography submitted to the committee, András Horváth was born in Budapest on 10 September 1975. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 1999, practices as a lawyer at Dr. Horváth P. András Law Office, and holds the honorary title of associate professor at Budapest Metropolitan University.
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