RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE  20 May 1999

SCANDAL OVER FIDESZ LOBBY FOR NEW U.S. AMBASSADOR. A
letter signed by 31 parliamentary deputies and three
political state secretaries from FIDESZ who are
recommending that Stephen M. Jones be the next U.S.
ambassador to Hungary has caused an uproar within the
party, Hungarian media reported on 19 May. The letter
was addressed to U.S. senators Jesse Helms and Joseph
Biden of the Foreign Relations Committee but reportedly
never reached its destination. Jones, a senior official
at Lockheed Martin Corporation, had been lobbying in
Budapest in connection with his firm's participation in
a postponed Hungarian tender for fighter aircraft.
FIDESZ parliamentary group leader Jozsef Szajer
apologized to U.S. Ambassador Peter Tufo and said his
party will launch an investigation into the matter.
Political analysts say the letter amounts to an
unprecedented intervention by Hungarian politicians in
U.S. internal affairs. MSZ

NEW BILINGUAL RADIO STATION TO GO ON AIR IN
TRANSYLVANIA. Gyorgy Frunda, a senator for the Hungarian
Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), announced that
a 24-hour Hungarian- and Romanian-language radio station
will be launched in Targu Mures on 1 September, the BBC
reported on 19 May, citing Hungarian Duna TV. VG

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx