Peter Molnar graduated from the Faculty of Law at Lorand Eotvos University (ELTE) in Budapest in 1987, and earned an M.A. in aesthetics from ELTE in 1994. From 1990–98, he was a member of the Hungarian Parliament and served on the committees on culture and press, as well as on the committee on the constitution, and on the subcommittee which drafted media legislation for Hungary. Molnar has lectured on media law at Janus Pannonius University and on speech law and freedom of information law at ELTE. Publications include “Challenges of the Information Super Highways and Central European Experiences” (forward to the Hungarian edition of Monroe Price’s Television, the Public Sphere and National Identity, 1998); and “Transforming Hungarian Broadcasting” (Media Studies Journal, fall 1999), among other articles. Molnar will examine freedom of speech and expression regulation and its impact on journalism in the Central European context.
The New York Times Rule on the Net or in the World “…without uncertainty, compromise and fear,” or Should the New York Times Rule Be Introduced in Hungary?
January 1, 2000
A paper by Peter Molnar, spring 2000 fellow, examines Hungary’s lack of press freedom and possible paths forward. Freedom of speech was less valued in Hungary’s fledgling democracy than it was before the fall of the Berlin Wall, argues Molnar. Such a contradiction is characteristic of the ongoing transformation in Hungarian society. An emerging democracy
