The latest constitutional amendments which, by the way, were dutifully signed by President János Áder on June 28, were accompanied by two draft bills that were submitted to parliament for consideration by Minister of Justice László Trócsányi. One is Bill T/706 on the Protection of Private Life and the other is Bill T/707 on the Right of Assembly. Both are purposefully very loosely worded, and both can be construed as attempts to narrow the scope of media freedom and freedom of assembly.
Despite the title of Bill T/706, it is not about safeguarding the privacy of individuals but about the private sphere of public figures, be they elected officials or not. The bill makes a sharp distinction between such public figures’ official activities and their private lives. A politician, for example, must endure more than an ordinary citizen in his capacity as a public figure, but his private life is sacrosanct. That might mean, as an internet legal expert explained, that a photo of Viktor Orbán can be taken without his permission while he is giving a speech at a village gathering, but if afterwards he sits down with his hosts to have a glass of wine, he must grant the photographer permission in his capacity as a private person.
Most legal scholars agree that this new bill is totally unnecessary because the civil and criminal codes already cover the protection of politicians’ private lives in a satisfactory manner. Politicians who feel that their right to privacy has been transgressed could always seek legal redress. A large number of constitutional lawyers maintain that this additional bill serves only one purpose: to tip the balance in favor of privacy of the person over freedom of speech. Others believe that both bills are mere hocus-pocus; there is nothing new in them. All the provisions have simply been copied from the already existing civil and criminal codices. I’m no lawyer, but I think I know something about the nature of the Orbán regime, and I don’t believe that Orbán’s minister of justice would present a bill that has no purpose whatsoever.
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I’m convinced that the regime is incredibly annoyed about the stories of corruption by Fidesz politicians and members of the government that emerge with increasing frequency in the media. Let’s not forget the likely cause of Népszabadság’s demise. The paper was working on a story about Antal Rogán’s dubious financial dealings and his “free” helicopter rides when Mediaworks pulled the plug. Népszabadság was no more. But the damage was already done. Rogán had to be hidden from view for a very long time; it was only lately, mostly after the election, that the propaganda minister reemerged. Or think of Zsolt Semjén’s hunting trips to Sweden that were uncovered by Magyar Nemzet. Mind you, there is no more Magyar Nemzet either, although its passing wasn’t directly linked to the Semjén story. Or, there is 444’s revelation that Semjén also frequents Canada where he hunts elk and bison. Semjén keeps repeating that his passion for hunting is his own business. He goes to Sweden and Canada as a private individual. Of course, what he neglects to mention is that he is an elected politician of limited financial means who couldn’t possibly afford such luxury trips. The money for the Swedish trip came from a businessman who, among the government contracts he landed since 2010, received 530 million forints from an EU subsidy thanks to the prime minister’s office.
24.hu collected ten cases which, in their estimation, couldn’t have been reported by the media if this new bill had been in force. In addition to Semjén’s hunting trips and Rogán’s encounter with the helicopter that belonged to a man who had business dealings with the Orbán government, cink.hu reported in January 2014 that János Lázár invited a bunch of his aristocratic friends for a hunting event where the illustrious company shot 913 pheasants. It was an expensive little affair, especially from Lázár’s relatively modest salary.
Árpád Habony’s financial affairs have always intrigued the media, with good reason. As far as anyone knows, he doesn’t have a job. Yet one of the readers of 444.hu saw him at Heart Ibiza, described as the most spectacular restaurant in the world. Matolcsy’s financial affairs are also legendary, starting with his girlfriend’s unusually high salary at the Hungarian National Bank, his rent-free apartment from a rich banker, and his sons’ questionable financial successes of late. Péter Polt, the chief prosecutor, is an extremely valuable person in the mafia family of Viktor Orbán, without whom many members of the government would be in jail by now. So, he must be well cared for financially. Not only is he paid well, but both his wife and his daughter work in the Hungarian National Bank, with unusually high salaries.
We mustn’t forget about Péter Szijjártó’s new house for which he paid 167 million forints and which he and his wife then completely refurbished. All that from his modest ministerial salary and loans from his parents. Ráhel Orbán’s expensive course of study in Switzerland aroused the interest of the media, which eventually led journalists to the corrupt games of Orbán’s son-in-law. That case ended up within the purview of OLAF, the European Commission’s Anti-Corruption Office.
And finally, there is the Kósa case. It all started with the discovery by Népszava that Lajos Kósa’s 82-year-old mother launched a new business. She purchased a pig farm, and the lucky lady received 100 million forints from the government for the modernization of the farm. Since then, Kósa also found himself in trouble on account of an alleged inheritance, where he insisted on a cut for himself and his mother.
It is possible that 24.hu is unduly worried and that this new law will not have such a negative effect on the media’s ability to report similar corruption cases in the future. But, as I said, Orbán and company don’t introduce new pieces of legislation without having some very specific goals in mind.