The Inquiry of the Action of the Media Council Concerning the Program entitled Bridging the gap of the Series Target of the Hír TV News Channel AJB 3739 2012

The Inquiry of the Action of the Media Council Concerning the Program entitled "Bridging the gap" of the Series "Target" of the Hír TV News Channel AJB-3739/2012

 AJB-3739/2012

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights concluded in his inquiry that a documentary is incompatible with the principle of human dignity if it suggests either in its asking questions or in its conclusions explicitly or implicitly that there may be a connection between the ethnic origin of the perpetrators and their criminal lifestyle.

The Media Council is obliged to use its means specified in laws in case of an infringement of fundamental rights, especially the right to human dignity. Máté Szabó said that the state and its organs have an obligation regarding the protection of fundamental rights to ensure the enforcement of the principle of equal dignity. Although, it does not belong to the duties of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights to assess the programs from a technical-editorial point of view, however, it is his duty to consider if the authorities are guardians of the fundamental rights and constitutional requirements with respect to a specific program.   

Presenting crime and deviation as a Roma issue, the collective guilt principle cannot be accepted in any respect in a democratic society. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights stressed that not only generalization without exception, based on race and questioning the human nature constitutes infringement of human dignity.  The equal dignity of members of a concerned community is infringed even if the theme selection of the program or its questions is based on stereotypes and so prejudice.  The inquired program on the whole suggested the message that in the concerned settlements gipsies are responsible for crime, the problems, even for their own poverty.

Máté Szabó concluded that the Media Council caused maladministration by having terminated its proceeding against the program entitled as "Bridging the gap" with its unreasonably restrictive interpretation of the laws on the protection of human dignity. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights also stressed that the prejudice depiction incompatible with the principle of equal dignity and the programs showing the infringement of fundamental rights neutrally or favourably are of concern from the point of view of the personality development of minors, too, since they may cause a severe moral uncertainty. Consequently, these programs need to be inquired in relation to children's right to protection and care.  

The report is available in Hungarian at 201203739.rtf