European Commission to examine Hungarian Media law. Changes will be required if the law breaches fundamental rights.

Speaking this morning at a European Parliament hearing organised by the Liberal group, European Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the new Hungarian Media law "seemed to raise a problem under the AVMS directive" and risked breaching fundamental rights in a number of different ways.

In a strong speech in which she reiterated Europe's commitment to

Read more: EU: Hungarian Media law may pose risk to free speech

The Hungarian presidency of the European Union has been thrown under an aggressive global media spotlight, in the wake of a recently-enacted Media Law, which threatens censorship of all media, traditional and Internet.

It really is not the sort of PR that the Hungarian government would have hoped for when it takes over the EU Presidency this Saturday. But a barrage of attacks in the foreign media, including being accused by the UK's Daily Mail of bringing in a "communist-style measure" to gag the media, and by al Jazeera English of its 'unsuitability' to hold the EU presidency, sets it up for a rocky ride over the next 6 months.

The anger of the world's media against the Hungarian government has been prompted by a new Media Law which threatens freedom of speech. The law will affect material published on the Internet, although its scope is much wider.

The Hungarian Media Law regulates all media, both traditional print, radio and television, as well as the Internet. It imposes fines for failure to comply with government-defined criteria not to offend "public morality, churches, nationalities or minorities."

The story appears to have leaped into the global media following a European Commission

Read more: Media storm as EU targets Hungary over censorship law

Copyright enforcement by blocking websites has divided opinion in Spain and gets the thumbs down from the law-makers. But newly released Wikileaks cables flush out how the USTR offered to 'help' shape the text.

A Spanish Parliamentary committee has rejected a new law which would have permitted the enforcement of copyright by putting block on websites which are alleged to carry infringing content. The outcome flies in the face of new information from freshly-online Wikileaks cables showing how the USTR worked to get the law drafted.

The Spanish approach is quite different from the French or the British. It does not target

Read more: Spanish Parliament throws out draconian copyright sanctions