Brief history:

The Association of Hungarian Content Providers (MTE), a self-regulating body, was founded in 2001 by Hungarian internet content providers  – including Index and [origo] – in order for the content providers to be able to participate in the development of the Hungarian Internet business market with verified and professionally supported committments, and with the tools of self-regulation.

It is a certain effort of MTE to achieve that the Internet be regulated with the smallest state intervention possible, and that emphasis is placed on self-regulation. For this, MTE created the professional code of internet content providing, and the code of ethics describing a generally accepted system of ethical norms for Hungarian content provision. To decide about disputed matters, the association establishes a professional decision court, whose decisions are accepted by members of MTE as binding on themselves.

The goals of the MTE

– To provide an institutional framework for professional debates on the regulation of Internet content provision

– Realize and actively practice the techniques of media self-regulation

– Prepare and make available publicly the rules and ethical norms of Internet content provision

– To achieve a unified system of norms for Internet content provision

– To represent content providers in negotiations with governmental bodies

– To contribute to the development of the Internet culture, and making the Internet more safe and friendly

The Statutes of the MTE

The Statutes were accepted by the board of directors of the Association of Hungarian Content Providers on the 20th of March 2001 and amended on the 17th of June 2008.

In the Statutes, you can find the goals of the association, the conditions of membership, and the rights and obligations of the members. The Statutes describe the structure and operational rules of the association.

The Code of Content Providing is the Association of Hungarian Content Providers’ operational, ethical and procedural rules related to content provision (the current document is valid: up to 8 June 2008, date of last revision: 11 June 2004).

The full text of the Code of Content Providing can be read here.

The English language text of the Code of Content Providing can be read here.

Preamble

The leading Internet Content Providers of Hungary (hereafter: Content Providers), in order to ensure that

– the rules, procedures, and customs of Internet content providing bedefined and known to service providers as well as users and the broader public
– so that Internet content providing would take place within a framework regulated by professional organizations and the participants of the market
– Internet content providing be adjusted to the legal background and emerging self-regulating systems of other fields related to content providing (advertising, the press, and other areas of information providing)
– the same rules apply to those accepting or employing the present regulations of content providing
– these rules become known to, and accountable by, consumers of content providing, as well as anyone else coming into contact with, or forming opinion about, it
– the infringement of the accepted rules of content providing be sanctioned within the framework of self-regulation
– the elected professional organization of Content Providers represent Content Providers during negotiations with other professional organizations, as well as state bodies and institutions
– Content Providers exert legitimate and professionally sound influence, based on mutual agreement, on the changing conditions of the market, the altering legal background, international processes affecting the Hungarian context, and the formation of roles assumed by the state

establish the Hungarian Association of Content Providers that has elaborated, discussed, and accepted the Statutes of the Association, the Code of Content Providing, the Code of Ethics of Content Providing, and made several recommendations to its members and accepting associations about the particular rules of content providing and the publication of these rules on the Internet.