The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) has taken the Government Control Office to court to make public their report analyzing the failure on the reform of the public administration. The Metropolitan Court has dismissed the HCLU’s action on the liberty to appeal.

In its judgement, the Metropolitan Court has ordered the HPSHC to release the requested contracts and related documentation on power plants privatization in it’s first instance decision today. Ákos Moskovits, journalist for Manager Magazine, with HCLU’s attorney András Schiffer has filed suit last November.

On Home Birth Day the HCLU in an open letter ask that the Prime Minister facilitate the reassuring and competent settling of the domestic status of planned home births.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is pleased to acknowledge that the government has, just before it became valid, revoked the governmental decree amendment, which would have classified bullet and pierce-proof vests, helmets and breast-plates as equipment specifically dangerous to public safety.

The important lesson in this case is that even though hundreds of cameras are monitoring our lives day and night, the police still do not have any evidence backing up the effectiveness of the CCTV in crime prevention. At least the Supreme Court, in it’s decision, has given back a piece of our right to personal privacy by making public when and where CCTVs are watching, thus we will be less at the mercy of those watching us. On the basis of public interest data, it will be easier to judge the price we have to pay for the promise of public safety.

The Ministry of Finance has sent the HCLU the drafts for disclaimer of opinion, which would form the legal confines of how personal data registered in state databases, after anonimization can be used for research.