Hungarian government threatens to lift license of independent radio station

Klubrádíó's office in Budapest is small, but its current role in the political turmoil in Hungary is huge.

The Hungarian private radio broadcaster has became the symbol of struggles over the new media law approved by the government of PM Viktor Orbán.

The radio, well-known for its critical stance to the government, is threatened with having its license taken away, which would mean nothing less than the broadcaster's end.

Viktor Orbán's approach to Hungarian media has already been criticized by the EU.

Klubrádíó's editor-in-chief Ferenc Vicsek says he cannot believe that the freedom of speech in Hungary is under threat so many years after the fall of Communism.

Vicsek said that Fidesz, the governing party, has created a media council controlled exclusively by its members, and they have decided to destroy the broadcaster. Its conflict with the government has made the radio station very popular in Hungary, but this alone cannot save it.

 Fidesz won 52 percent of votes in the 2010 election, which brought him 68 percent of the seats in the Hungarian parliament - a 2/3 constitutional majority.

The European Union has criticized the government's moves to throttle media but so far this has had little effect.