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Weekly Lists
August 4, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
bne:TMT Hungary's ruling party
tightens grip on media
Business circles close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban are set to further strengthen their grip on Hungarian media with new acquisi- tions on the radio and local newspaper markets, local media re- ported on August 2.
The ruling Fidesz party is ready to step into the 2018 general elec- tion campaign with a massive media stable behind it, according to local critics. Opposition parties say the level of government control in the media has reached levels that threaten freedom of speech.
After oligarch and former Fidesz cashier Lajos Simicska turned against Orban in 2015, the prime minister has sought to build a new media empire via close business circles. The media outlets have benefited from huge ad revenues from the state to keep their op- erations running.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law banning the use of Internet "anonimizers" in Russia as means of access to websites blocked by Russian watchdogs and regulators, the government legal information portal said on July 29.
The law was previously passed by the State Duma and the Federation council and limits the use of all means of hiding the IPN address of the user such as proxy and VPN services, as well as anonymous networks such as Tor.
Bosnian power firm Elektroprivreda BiH and the country’s public broadcaster BHRT have reportedly signed an agreement that could save the broadcaster from collapse.
The previous model for collecting the licence fee through telephone bills expired almost a year ago and the two telecoms companies operating in the country were gathering it voluntarily. According
to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), this situation was threatening the survival of the public broadcaster, which has accumulated around €20mn of debt.
Now Elektroprivreda BiH will collect licence fees for the state-level BHRT and the public broadcaster of the Muslim-Croat Federation – RTV FBiH — through electricity bills as of the beginning of August, which should guarantee more stable financing for BHRT, Indikator.ba reported on August 2.
Russia bans anonymous Internet access
Deal struck to save Bosnian state broadcaster