‘Amendments would
restrict freedom of expression to unacceptable degree'
The spectre of the
Holocaust was invoked last week when controversial legislation criminalising
hate speech was thrown out by the Constitutional Court.
The court last Monday
rejected two amendments to Hungary’s laws on inflammatory public discourse that
would have made ‘hate speech’ a criminal offence punishable by up to two years
in prison.
In the wake of a
perceived rise in open attacks on minority groups by extremists, the government
last autumn brought in legislation on hate speech. It aimed to restrict public
speech that denigrates and foments prejudice against minority groups on the
grounds of religion, ethnicity or sexuality.
The amendments tightening
the law were passed by parliament in November 2007 and February this year, but
referred to the court by President László Sólyom, who felt the stricter rules
on public discourse might be unconstitutional.
Freedom versus dignity
The Constitutional Court
ruled last Monday that the amendments were indeed unconstitutional. Péter
Feldmayer, president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities
(MAZSIHISZ), said that the human right to dignity is paramount. Criticising the
court’s decision, he said the court now appears to consider freedom of speech
to be of equal importance. Feldmayer did, however, agree that the legislation
struck down last Monday was flawed.
Others reacted more
angrily to the court’s decision. Socialist MP Tamás Suchman, one of the authors
of the controversial legislation that would criminalise hate speech, last
Wednesday visited the president of the court, Mihály Bihari.
Auschwitz diary presented
Suchman gave Bihári a
copy of the diary his mother kept in the ghetto in the southern Hungarian town
of Kaposvár and continued at Auschwitz. Speaking after the meeting, Suchman
said the timing of the court’s decision was a slap in the face for those
commemorating “the 600,000 who were deported and murdered” in the closing days
of the Second World War.
Suchman said that legal
regulation is needed because there is little chance at the moment in Hungary of
a broad alliance across the political, religious and social spectrum.
He acknowledged as a
positive exception the move by the Fidesz mayor of the southern town of
Hódmezővásárhely, who recently banned the far-right Magyar Gárda from holding
rallies there.
President László Sólyom
had referred the two amendments to the Constitutional Court in the wake of
concerns expressed by civil liberties groups. The chairman of the Hungarian
Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), Balázs Dénes, said in February: “It limits the
basic right to freedom of speech in an unprecedented way.”
In the clauses
The new clauses would
have widened the scope of people offended by purveyors of hate speech to take
legal action, as well as putting peddlars of inflammatory rhetoric at risk of
imprisonment.
The first amendment
enabled a person to bring a civil action against a speaker even if the hate
speech was not aimed directly at the plaintiff, but rather the ethnic or social
group to which he or she belongs.
The second made hate
speech a criminal offence punishable by a prison sentence of up to two years.
The latter was voted through mainly by backbench Socialist MPs without the
support of the cabinet after opposition Fidesz MPs had left the chamber.
Unacceptable restriction
In handing down its
ruling, the court stated that only natural persons are entitled to have their
human dignity protected by legislation, and that it cannot be applied to
broader communities or groups. The court decided that both of the amendments
would restrict freedom of expression to an unacceptable degree.
“In a free and democratic
society the expression of extreme and exclusive opinion does not endanger the
foundations and operations of society, because by expressing such views, the
discriminator confines itself to the periphery,” the court said in its ruling.
The original bill on hate
speech was passed last October as the government sought to address a perceived
increase in activity by right-wing extremists. The most high-profile example
was the creation of the Magyar Gárda (Hungarian Guard), a uniformed group set
up by the extreme nationalist Jobbik party.
Open season on Jews &
Gypsies
Socialist MPs Gergely
Bárándy and Tamás Suchman, the sponsors of the amendment bills, immediately
voiced their disappointment at the court’s decision. At a press conference
Bárándy said the ruling means it is now possible to “denigrate Jews and Gypsies
publicly and with impunity”. Suchman said that the move would reassure those
who “even if they are not neo-fascists… still represent extreme right-wing
beliefs that the whole of civilised Europe opposes.”
The Socialist MPs pledged
to resubmit legislation to curb hate speech to parliament as many times as are
necessary until it is voted through.
The main opposition party
in Hungary, the centre-right Fidesz, had rejected the amendments all along.
Fidesz MP Róbert Répássy, speaking to the news agency MTI, merely characterised
the affair as evidence that the Socialists “repeatedly abuse their powers as
legislators”.
Outrage out front
The issue of the
influence of extremists on Hungarian society has been thrown into sharp focus
since autumn 2006 and a series of anti-government demonstrations. Protests
began as a genuine expression of public outrage at government austerity
measures and the leak of a tape on which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány
acknowledged his party had systematically lied about the parlous state of
national finances to secure re-election. However, far-right groups – fired up
by a degree of public sympathy in adversity that has since waned considerably –
began to play a more prominent role in protests and riots.
The setting up by the
extremist party Jobbik of Magyar Gárda helped far-right groups, which have no
representation in parliament, to attract a great deal of media coverage. The
group’s activities – such as inflammatory rhetoric at gatherings and numerous
marches through Roma villages against “Gypsy criminality” – have sparked
outrage, primarily among Jewish groups and representatives of the Roma
community that makes up some 7% of Hungary’s population.
Gárda on trial
The trial of the Magyar
Gárda dragged on last Monday at Budapest City Court, amidst a strong police
presence. Some fifty uniformed members of the controversial organisation held a
vigil outside the courthouse.
No verdict was reached as
more and more witnesses appeared to speak in defence of the Gárda. Frustration
at the slow pace of the trial prompted one of the prosecuting parties, the
legal counsel for the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, Oszkár
Egri, to comment: “There could be 32
filibusters who could read the complete works of Balzac to drag things out and
stop us reaching a decision in the case.”
The move to disband the
Gárda was initiated by the Budapest prosecutor’s office, which claims the
group, which was officially registered as a cultural organisation, is guilty of
infringing the rights of Roma citizens. The trial will continue on 1 September.
1. Written by Ashwin Jangam on 13-07-2008 14:34 - Guest
Ambedkarite Buddhism
Dear Sir, You write this article really very well.I have read it and got to know the court design in Hungary and their struggle.
thanks to write such good article i will be continue read from you.I live here in India.I was last year visited to hungary and got to know the Gypsies and jewish people life in Hungary.
