The European Commission said today that Hungary had agreed to demands that it should change its media law to address concerns that it violated EU rules.

Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for the digital agenda, she was “very pleased” that the Hungarian government has agreed to amend their national media legislation “to ensure that it complies with EU law”.

She added however that the Commission would “continue to monitor” the law to make sure that the authorities implement the requested changes in a revision of the legislation and that it is “consistently applied in practice”. A Commission spokesman said Hungary intended to implement the changes “within the coming two weeks”.

The Commission had expressed “serious doubts” that the contentious law complied with the EU’s audiovisual media services directive or with press freedom provisions under the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. Commission and Hungarian experts have for the last two weeks worked to agree on specific changes that the Commission was demanding in the law.

The Commission said the four issues identified as problematic in the law were now being addressed.

They included a “disproportionate application” of rules on balanced reporting, as well as fines that can be levied against foreign media outlets, rules on media registration, and provisions in the law that media content may not cause offence to minorities or majorities.

The Commission said the changes agreed “would limit” the balanced coverage requirements to broadcast media, as is the case in other member states. They would no longer be applied to on-demand media services or online bloggers.

Powers under the law to impose fines on non-resident media outlets for violating the provisions on incitement to hatred were also scrapped.

On registration, changes clarify when on-demand audiovisual media service providers, media product publishers and ancillary media services would have to register.

The existing law had demanded registration before they were allowed to offer services. Under the changes, the media providers would have to register within 60 days of starting up their services in Hungary.

The Hungarian government also agreed to change its provisions on causing offence, which raised concerns by the Commission that they violated press freedoms under Article 11 of the EU’s rights charter. Agreed changes will narrow the scope of the provisions and limit the risk of bans or fines on media operations in cases of incitement to hatred or discrimination.

The Hungarian law came into force on 1 January. Widespread criticism over the law marred the start of Hungary’s presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, which also started at the beginning of the year. The Commission had threatened legal action against Hungary if it refused to incorporate the changes demanded by EU officials.