The Hungarian state broadcasting company has announced that it will axe around 1,000 jobs to cut costs. The BBC also has to cut costs, but there’s a major difference, as explained by the daily newspaper Népszabadság.
“The state media in the UK won’t suffer a bit from the measures. No one is being fired. [Sketches editorial comment: this statement may be based on obsolete information.] The BBC’s operations are guaranteed through radio and TV licence fees….
“This is not the case in Hungary; the media world has never witnessed a more idiotic move than the abolition of radio and TV licence fees here…. While the BBC’s cuts involve closing down some of its stations, none of our stations are being taken off the air. The BBC’s cost-cutting model is transparent, whereas all we can see is that the directors, editors and employees of stations that exist and will continue to exist are being fired one after another. This approach is as damaging as it is humiliating, and quite obviously not economically, but politically, motivated.”
Source: Népszabadság, July 9
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
