OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 153, 8 August 1996

STATE MEDIA PROTEST AGAINST HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT RESOLUTION. Hungarian
Radio, Hungarian Television and Hungaria Television public foundations
have protested against a recent government resolution to supervise the
financial management of state media institutions, Hungarian media
reported on 7 August. Opposition parties and the junior coalition party
Alliance of Free Democrats joined the protest. Opponents of the plan
warn that by amending the budget law, the government will violate the
media law passed in December. The newly appointed chairman of Hungarian
Television, Istvan Petak, said it would be a "tragedy" if it was
approved by parliament. The Prime Minister's Office commented that the
cabinet had no intention of drawing public service radio and television
under its authority. However, its spokesman added that the respective
media institutions have accumulated a sizable debt, and their long-term
financing needs to be definitively solved. -- Zsofia Szilagyi

ROMANIA, HUNGARY AND THE U.S. A spokesman for the Romanian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs told a press conference on 7 August that his country
took note "with interest" of the U.S. State Department position on
Hungarian minorities abroad, Radio Bucharest reported. Reacting to the
29 July American statement that the U.S. supports the rights of national
minorities to the preservation of their own cultural and spiritual
identity but rejects any drive to territorial autonomy based on ethnic
criteria, Sorin Ducaru said this position was fully in line with
Bucharest's own views on national minority rights. -- Michael Shafir

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Pete Baumgartner