It was Fidesz members of parliament András Cser-Palkovics and Antal Rogán who submitted to Parliament a legal package also known as the media constitution, but everyone seems to think you are behind it, in the background.

If I were to refute that, who would believe me? When I became a member of the National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT) in 2004, I renounced my mandate in Parliament for reasons of conflict of interests. But of course it's natural that the government makes use of the professional knowledge and experience that I gained as a law enforcer and earlier as a media politician. What's more, as a member of ORTT it is my duty to monitor the way this field is regulated. This was what I did during the previous government, in the course of the five-party negotiations.

Public service will become a service to the party, a media system is being built which is dependent on the government, what is going on is colonialisation -  these are just a few criticisms regarding the planned media regulation.

Usually, it's the person who set fire to the house who starts shouting out loud that there's a fire. Up till now, the public media was at the mercy of the ruling power. If the government was pleased with any of them it rewarded them, if not, it deprived them of funds. The system of public service institutions is in ruins.  Public television, the National Radio and Television Committee and the National Communications Authority have no president.  The quality of the media is questionable, and public money is being squandered unchecked. This situation is untenable and cannot go on. The media law that is in force at the moment is inadequate for the management of the present problems. That is why the constitution needs to be amended, why parliamentary decisions and a law amending the regulations concerning the media and communications are necessary, as well as a framework law dealing with the printed, electronic and internet media in a unified manner, and a new media law containing all the regulations in detail.

According to the new regulations, it will be obligatory to announce all the important news. But who will define what belongs in this category? At the college of journalism, we teach our students that the value of a news item depends on a large number of things, on the circle of readers, for example, among other things.

The press must ensure that citizens have access to information. The obligation to notify applies to the press as a whole. It's not as if a magazine for motorists, or a music radio channel, had to communicate political news. It is already a requirement that national commercial television channels must broadcast news programmes. The bill that is to be submitted in autumn will have to determine how the right to access information should be interpreted.

Many people find it worrying that in the future, anyone will be able to respond in writing to an article that they find injurious.  What's more, the so-called Lex Répássy, which was a similar amendment, was rejected by the Constitutional Court earlier on.

The right of reply is a legal principle recognized by the European Union, which could have been transferred into our legal system earlier on. This is not an unlimited possibility, it's something that one can resort to in the event of slander or the breach of human dignity. Since there is a possibility for legal redress, there is no need to worry that people will write to all the papers if something bothers them.

How do the changes affect those two commercial television channels, RTL Klub and TV2, concerning which many complaints have been made in connection with the violation of the rights of minors?

The newly prepared draft framework law has regulations in this regard, but the sanctions will be discussed in detail in the autumn. I must add that there are sanctions in the current law, but the service providers try to evade these rules. While in other countries humiliation is a dissuasive tool in itself, here in Hungary it is the broadcaster that humiliates the authority for bothering it. We hope that there will be a moral purification in society which will also have a positive effect on the world of the media.

Following the merger of ORTT and the National Communications Authority, there will be one unified public media supervisory authority which will control the television and radio channels and MTI, the central newsagency. Is it true that you will be the head of this authority?

Although I was a media politician for a long time, and gained a lot of experience during the six years that I spent as a member of ORTT, I do not have dreams of positions that I would like to fill. The Prime Minister and the Parliament will decide, and I will simply do my job.

ANNAMÁRIA SZALAI

She was born in Zalaegerszeg in 1961. •  In 1982, she obtained a degree as a primary school teacher, in 1990 she got a diploma in adult education, in 1998 she obtained a degree in economics. • She became a member of Fidesz in 1991. •  Between 1998 and 2004, she was a member of Parliament. •  From 2003, she has been a senior lecturer at the János Kodolányi College. • She has been a member of the ORTT since 2004.