It’s as easy as that. Nothing about morality, but all about having power, keeping power, and gaining even more power.

Reproduction of the first page of the letter by the National Media and Communications Authority to Radio Tilos


Authorities like the above one stand for nothing but the abuse of power.
No checks and balances, only the hope for public outcry.

Information about the case called “Ice-T gate”
2011. január 2.


Ice-T Gate: National Media and Communications Authority contra Radio Tilos


In a letter dated 13th December 2010, the NMCA objects to an English-language song (performed by Ice-T) in a show on 2nd September 2010 (at 5.51pm). The reaction by Radio Tilos was written with the help of Dr Eva Simon, collaborator in the Freedom of Speech programme of the Society for Freedom of Speech (TASZ ). Éva committed her time to the radio over her family Christmas, so that the reply would be ready. We appreciate it a lot!

A strange dialogue of sense and interpretation has started to take shape between the Radio and the Media Board, which is to make everyone with all its might comply with the forthcoming media law.



Tthe radio’s answer in English:

Dear Content Monitoring Department,


Referring to your letter dated 13th December and received 21st December, we have the following observations:


It is to be noted that as a consequence of the date of the letter, more or less the period of the Christmas holidays were left for reflections, so we were obliged to consider the prospects of the official inspection you are referring to during the holidays, since according to the law CXL of 2004 on Administrative procedures (LAP) we have a period of 8 days to reply.


LAP 1 § (2) states „ while excercising its power, the administrative authority […] is obliged to procede according to the requirements of professionality, rationality and cooperation with the client. In case of a broadcast medium which has neither legal department, nor financial means, the indicated period constitutes a much greater burden than for a market-based broadcast medium.


At 5:53pm 2nd September 2010, the broadcast medium Radio Tilos (maintained by Tilos Cultural Foundation) broadcast two songs by Ice T: Warning (intro) and It’s on. The official inspection establishes that the broadcast medium violated sections 5/B. § (3) and %/C § (2) of the Regulations on Radio and Television Broadcasting. (RRTB)


5/B. § (3) The item which is capable of influencing the physical, mental or moral development of individuals under 16 in an unfavourable way, especially by implying aggression and sexuality in an indirect way, or if the determining element of its subject is a conflict solved by aggression, it must be classified Category 3. The classification of this item: not recommended for people under 16. 5/C. § (2) The items classified Category 3 may be broadcast with the adequate warning between 9pm and 5 am

(…)

The investigation is referring to verdict 3.K.33902/2005/7. by the Budapest Court of Justice. The referred verdict is not available to us. It is not possible to search in the Archive of Court Decisions based on the reference number of the verdicts, furthermore, it is not in our knowledge whether the referred verdict is in the database at all. In a similar fashion, we are not aware whether anyone brought an appeal against the verdict, or has turned to the European Court of Human Rights. We do not know either how the practical interpretion by the legal predecessor of the authority (ORTT) relates to the whole text of the verdict. We are not aware either of the nature of the legal case in which the verdict was pronounced. Let us note that in Hungary there is no case law, therefore, reference to a unique decision brought by the Budapest Court of Justice does not in itself constitute grounds for legal dismissal of a broadcasting medium. The fact that the verdict is not publicly available, makes it impossible to react to this part of the investigation correctly.


The conclusion from the verdict arrived at by the authority, namely, that all other constitutional rights of freedom must give way to the healthy moral, mental and physical development of minors – does not comply with the criteria of constitutionality and decisions of the Constitutional Court.


Instead of constitutional rights of freedom the terminology of constitutional rights uses the expression fundamental constitutional rights. Fundamental rights do not have a defined hierarchy, except for the right to life, as an unlimitable fundametal right. It is beyond doubt that the freedom of opinion – as one of the many fundamental rights – may be limited in certain cases for the protection of minors, but it does not mean that freedom of opinion, or any other fundamental rights lose it to the protection of minors in all cases.


If the statement of the investigation were true, then for the protection of minors our fundamental right to life could be limited as well, which is luckily not the case.


Linguistic slackness

The investigation refers to „herding” minors „towards lingustic slackness”. Let us observe that regulations by RRTB. limiting freedom of opinion, like §’s 5/B or 5/C. do not give opportunity for limitations based on linguistic slackness. Limitation is allowed in case of unfavourable influence on the physical, mental or moral development of minors, and “linguistic slackness” does not belong in this group.


Up till this point, for over a decade, it hasn’t occurred that the authority would investigate and disapprove of the lyrics of a non-Hungarian song. Naturally, in the case of Hungarian songs we ourselves are taking care of our responsibilities because of the comprehensibility of lyrics, however, we haven’t been analyzing and translating the prosody of foreign language recordings. In these cases the music makers of the radio focus on the rhythms, instrumentation and melody of the songs. Let us request that if the investigation of foreign language songs is becoming a common practice with the authority, please inform us, regarding the fact that apart from English language songs, the radio broadcasts many songs in Spanish, Portuguese, French and German in the morning period, but many Russian, Serbian, Chinese, Hindi and other far-eastern songs are played, so we need to know how the authority is interpreting the law in this matter.


We consider the fact important that Radio Tilos has a traditionally familiar relationship with its listeners, with whom they keep in contact several ways, and who themselves are the strictest critics of the radio. At the moment our listener mailing list contains 652 registered users, the majority of them intellectuals, many of them with families of their own. Although they often present serious criticism against a given show on the mailing list, no one has ever criticized the lyrics of a foreign language song. The 12000-member Tilos Group on Facebook has never criticized anything of the like either.


At the designated time, 2nd September in the afternoon, there was no aggressive or rough content in the environment or the context of the disapproved recordings, for these are contrary to the philosophy of Radio Tilos anyway.


In our view the English language songs under investigation were not capable of influencing the moral development of individuals under 16 in an unfavourable way, therefore we respectfully request the Authority to establish that no violation took place on the part of the Broadcast medium.


Respectfully yours,

Gábor Csabai
Radio Tilos

Quoted from Radio Tilos in excerpts.

Ice-T: Warning

attention!
at this moment you are now listening to an Ice-T LP
if you are offended by words like
shit, bitch, fuck, dick, ass, hole, cunt,
dirty bitch, low motherfucker, nigga, hooker, slut, tramp,
dirty low slut tramp bitch hole, nigga fuck shit,
whateva..
take the tape out now!
this is not a pop album
and by the way
suck my motherfuckin’ dick




It´s on