Hungary will change its much-criticised media law if the European Union wants, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said today.
However, Mr Orban delivered a vigorous defence of the legislation, arguing that there was nothing in it that was not in other EU countries' laws.
Mr Orban has been roundly criticised by EU states such as France, Britain and Germany because of concerns about restrictions on media freedom, saying it was long overdue and democratic.
But he acknowledged the criticism levelled at his government and said that if the European Commission, which is studying the text, sought alterations, they would be made.
"We are part of the EU, there are rules of the game," Mr Orban told foreign reporters invited to Hungary as the country assumes the rotating presidency of the EU for the next six months.
"Any procedure that the EU starts and initiates, Hungary will accept it... If we are not right, and it becomes a fact, we will agree and we will correct it," he said.
But he said he did not believe there was anything in Hungary's law that was not already in any other EU member state's legislation and said that if Hungary was asked for changes, then other countries should amend their laws too.
"If this (or that) passage of the Hungarian media act should be amended, then the media laws in France, Germany and the Danish media laws should be changed too as there is nothing in our legislation that is not in their media laws," he said. "I defy anyone to find anything in our law that is not in other EU member states' media laws."
The legislation has cast a shadow over Budapest's EU presidency, with some politicians questioning whether Hungary is fit to run the EU's agenda for the next six months. There has also been strong criticism from foreign companies affected by "crisis taxes" Hungary has imposed on some sectors of the economy, including energy, telecoms and retail.
Mr Orban, whose centre-right Fidesz party holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, making it possible to drive through changes to the law quickly, acknowledged that Hungary had had a bad start to what will be a closely watched presidency.
"I agree this is a bad start, who would want to start like this?" he said. "I cannot change it, I live with it."
Hungary says the media law had to be changed because the old legislation was ineffective, with increasingly virulent tabloid TV channels and newspapers acting with impunity.
Andras Koltay, a professor of media freedom who helped draft the law, used the examples of a newspaper that ran front page pictures of a Hungarian footballer shortly before he died during a game, and a TV reality show that questioned a girl about her sex life until she broke down. "They were violations of human dignity, and that is what this new law aims to protect," he said.
