Media Law and Illiberal Democracy in the European Union

This paper aims to analyse how media laws have strongly contributed to the shaping of an "illiberal democracy" in Hungary. It shows that this goal has been achieved in the media sector, as well as in other areas of the Hungarian society, through an increased production of norms. This paper also addresses the European Union (EU)'s response to the changes in the state-society/law-society relations that have occurred in Hungary. It argues that media law is growing the seeds of illiberal democracy even in the so-called "Western" EU Member States. In Italy, for example, the legal technique of the increased production of norms has been used in the field of journalism to preserve some illiberal aspects of its regulation.