RFE/RL Daily Report
                                  No. 138, 22 July 1994


SLOVAKIA'S ETHNIC HUNGARIAN PARTIES AGREE TO COALITION. Slovakia's
three ethnic Hungarian parties --the Coexistence movement, the
Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement and the Hungarian Civic
Party-- agreed on 21 July to form a coalition for the Slovak
general elections, to be held on 30 September and 1 October, Radio
Budapest and TASR reported. HCDM Deputy Chairman Pal Farkas noted
the importance of the agreement for the Hungarian minority and
said it was supported by more than 90% of the ethnic Hungarians in
Slovakia. Ethnic Hungarians collected some 100,000 signatures for
an appeal calling for such a coalition, which was also strongly
advocated by Slovakia's ethnic Magyar mayors. In the June 1992
elections, no coalition accord could be reached because of
differences between Coexistence and the Christian Democrats on the
one hand and the liberal Civic Party on the other, and the Civic
Party failed to gain representation in the parliament.  Alfred
Reisch and Sharon Fisher, RFE/RL, Inc.

NEW HUNGARIAN RADIO CHIEF TO REINSTATE DISMISSED REPORTERS . . .
Radio chief Janos Sziranyi pledged to reinstate the 129 radio
reporters and journalists dismissed or sent into early retirement
by former radio chief Laszlo Csucs in March 1994, MTI reports.
Sziranyi apologized to the dismissed employees for the violation
of their "professional and human dignity." He issued an appeal to
prominent writers and musicians who protested against the
dismissals by not allowing their works to be aired to again
contribute to the radio's programs.  Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.

. . . WHILE NEW TELEVISION CHIEF DISMISSES TV REPORTER. At the
same time, new TV chief Adam Horvath dismissed TV reporter Istvan
Stefka who was in charge of the major evening news program Hirado
on the ground that Stefka's program was politically biased and its
professional quality was "zero." Horvath announced that he will
conduct talks with the other Hirado reporters to determine which
ones will be dismissed. The old TV and radio managements used
similar arguments to conduct purges among the two institutions'
employees.  Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.

HORN MEETS WITH ROMANIA'S ETHNIC MAGYAR LEADER. Bela Marko,
Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, held talks
on 20 July in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn
and Csaba Tabajdi, Political State Secretary in charge of minority
affairs, Radio Budapest and MTI reported. Marko expressed
satisfaction that the Hungarian government's program contained all
the basic principles on minority rights considered essential by
the HDUR. He quoted Horn as saying that the government would
consult with the HDUR on the Hungarian-Romanian basic treaty.
Tabajdi said that the treaty should declare that Hungary has no
territorial claims and contain guarantees for the enforcement of
minority rights.  Edith Oltay, RFE/RL, Inc.

  [As of 1200 CET]
  Compiled by Keith Martin and Stan Markotich
Copyright 1994, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.