RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 240, 15 December
1998

SWISS OWNER WILL NOT SELL 'MAGYAR HIRLAP.' Swiss media
baron Jurg Marquard said on 14 December in Budapest that
he does not intend to sell the independent Hungarian
daily "Magyar Hirlap." His statement ended days of media
speculation following Prime Minister Viktor Orban's
announcement last week that the cabinet plans to make
the daily part of the Hungarian Development Bank's press
portfolio and merge it with the conservative, pro-
government "Napi Magyarorszag." The Prime Minister's
Office said it would like to see a "major conservative
political daily on the market that would balance the
socialist-liberal slant in the press." Ilona Kocsi,
chief editor of "Magyar Hirlap," told reporters after
Marquard's announcement that "we are greatly relieved
that we will not have to become government property."
MSZ

BRUSSELS WARNS HUNGARY AGAINST IMPATIENCE. Nikolaus van
der Pas, director-general of the European Commission
group dealing with EU accession, said on 14 December in
Vienna that the commission understands Budapest's view
that Hungary needs the EU to set a date for its
accession, but he warned against "displaying
impatience." Such an attitude, he said, does not create
a good impression in Brussels. Van der Pas was
responding to Prime Minister Orban's statement at the EU
summit that Hungary's plan to join the union in 2002
"remains realistic." MSZ

NEW TENSIONS OVER 'MULTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY' IN
ROMANIA... National Peasant Party Christian Democratic
(PNTCD) chairman Ion Diaconescu on 14 December said he
recommends that the government does not appeal the
Bucharest Court of Appeal's ruling last week against the
setting up of the "multicultural" Petofi-Schiller
university. PNTCD deputy chairman Remus Opris said the
tribunal's decision had "washed away the government's
shame" for "giving into the exaggerated demands of the
Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania [UDMR]."
Democratic Party Chairman Petre Roman said he recommends
that the government "reformulate" the draft law on
setting up the university to avoid illegalities. Prime
Minister Radu Vasile said he is awaiting the opinion of
government experts before deciding whether to appeal the
decision, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS

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