RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 159, 19 August 1998

 HUNGARIAN-LANGUAGE PROGRAMS ON SLOVAK TV HALTED.
The Bratislava Hungarian-language daily "Uj Szo" reported on
18 August that Hungarian-language programming on Slovak
state television has been halted, effective immediately. An
editor of the program said that management had explained the
move by charging that the one-hour weekly program did not
meet the expectation that half of its coverage be devoted to
the Slovak government and the parliament. Management
announced that the broadcast will be replaced by an "all-
nationality program in which Croats, Gypsies, Poles, Serbs,
Ukrainians, and Hungarians will be allotted 10 minutes
each," Hungarian media reported. MS

HUNGARY'S TORGYAN STILL OPPOSED TO LAND OWNERSHIP BY
FOREIGNERS. Agriculture and Regional Development Minister
Joszef Torgyan on 18 August said there is "no question" of
changing his Independent Smallholders' Party's position on
the ownership of land by foreigners, adding that present
restrictions on land purchasing will not be lifted. He also
announced that sanctions will be imposed on landowners who
lease out land to foreign farmers by exploiting legal
loopholes and on those who have sold land illegally,
Hungarian media reported. In other news, Gabor Bencsik
resigned his position on the governing board of the
Journalists' Association after TV2 filmed him selling
videocassettes that denied the Holocaust took place. MS

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