RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  20 September 1999

HUNGARIAN JOURNALISTS TO PROTEST PLANNED TV DISMISSALS. The
Press Correspondents' Club announced on 18 September that it
will stage a protest against the pending dismissals of more
that 500 employees of Hungarian Television (MTV). The
statement said the 23 September rally will be staged to
defend the freedom of the press against the appointment of
"political commissars." MTV chairman Laszlo Zsolt Szabo
confirmed that a total of 1,000 staff will be laid off in two
phases. The cuts will result in a saving of 2.8 billion
forints ($11 million) next year, he explained. The opposition
Socialist Party said a "political purge" is taking place at
MTV, saying the reorganization is aimed at serving the
interests of the governing parties. MSZ

ROMANIA'S HUNGARIANS DISAGREE ON PRIVATE UNIVERSITY. The
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania's Consultative
Council on 17 September announced that the private Hungarian
university about to be set up with Budapest's assistance will
be based in Cluj and have branches in Oradea, Targu Mures,
Brasov, Sfantu Gheorghe, Timisoara, and other Transylvanian
towns. The council thereby overruled the party's honorary
chairman, Bishop Laszlo Tokes, who had said that the
university will be a religious one based in Oradea. The
council also said that the setting up of the private
university does not mean that the demand for a state
university offering instruction in Hungarian will be
renounced. MS

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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  21 September 1999

HUNGARIAN SOCIALISTS RECALL DEPUTY FROM COMMITTEE. The
parliamentary group of the opposition Socialist Party has
decided to recall Laszlo Paszternak as deputy chairman of the
parliament's Employment Committee because of involvement in
"unethical business deals," Hungarian media reported on 20
September The committee's Socialist chairman Laszlo Sandor,
who is also head of the National Trade Union Federation,
announced the same day that he will submit his resignation.
Paszternak bought land in his children's names at a resort
owned by the miners union, while Sandor was implicated in
Postabank's "VIP loans" scandal (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10
August 1999). MSZ

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               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
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