After being reported to police by unnamed individuals, Dopeman, a Hungarian rapper was summoned to the police station and questioned as a witness after coming out with a rap song which contained lines from the Hungarian National Anthem.

“Besides the fact that we find half of the tasks in the Gyöngyöspata Committee’s resolution to be disquieting, we find great flaw in that fact that none of the tasks involve the government, nor the examination of the responsibility of any police organizations,” said Eszter Jovánovics, Head of the Roma Program in the HCLU during the hearing held on October 27th 2011. In this meeting, the agenda of the Gyöngyöspata Committee (whose full name is “The committee investigating the process of uniformed crime, its background and events in Gyöngyöspata, as well as helping eliminate such crime) included the questioning of nonprofit organizations.

Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and Hungarian Helsinki Committee informed the President of the European Commission on the failure of the Hungarian lawmaker to fulfill its obligation to guarantee the complete independence of the Data Protection Commissioner. Hungary therefore breached its duty arising from EU law.

On 21, September representatives of several human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) met with delegates of the Hungarian Government at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice to have a discussion about the future steps of implementing the recommendations accepted by the government in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The NGOs were critical of the government's demonstrated unwillingness to have effective and meaningful consultation with civil society prior to deciding which recommendations to accept and decline in the UPR process. The NGOs raised further concerns about some of the recommendations that were rejected by the state. Finally, the NGOs proposed that the government set up working groups consisting of NGO and government representatives, which would regularly convene to develop steps and measures required to implement the recommendations accepted by the government, and to monitor the implementation process. The representatives of the government indicated that they would respond to this proposal by the end of October.

“We bring human rights to those living in total isolation, communities needing all the opportunities for just law enforcement that they can get,” says the HCLU’s web page. There are currently 15 working TASZPOINTs in Hungary, and our series of interviews will show how they work. Here, we discuss the TASZPOINT in Tomor, with Laci Siroki, the director.

A man from Borsodbóta had some logs valued at 3,200 forints in his wheelbarrow, when the police surrounded him, handcuffed him, and took him, along with his 17 and 19 year old sons, to jail. They kept them in jail for three days. Without taking into consideration that the 17 year old son was a minor, they interrogated him, didn’t give him proper representation, and made him sign papers without him knowing their content.

On July 19th, after a lengthy legal battle, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled in favor of journalist Peter Uj, represented by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. The journalist criticized the state owned Tokaj Kereskedőház (Hungarian winery) and specifically characterized it’s wine as shit. Criminal charges (defamation and criminal libel) initiated by the Tokaj Kereskedőház were pressed against him.

The draft law – currently before the Parliament – on Data Protection and Freedom of Information will replace the independent Data Protection and Freedom of Information Commissioner with an administrative authority. This change will seriously diminish the level of privacy protection and weaken the right to access to information in Hungary.

The 2/3 majority Hungarian Parliament, with a resolution published on June 7, set up an ad hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the events in Gyöngyöspata. Despite the fact that based on the title and preamble of the resolution, the task of the committee is to investigate the background of criminal activity by uniformed personnel and to assist in eliminating it, out of the nine tasks listed by the resolution five (!) are concerned with the evacuation of the Roma by the Red Cross and the role of Richard Field. The resolution – recalling the documents of the staged trials of the 1950s – is prejudiced when, among others, it states: “establishing who and why claimed untruthfully with regard to the long-existing activities of the Red Cross that the evacuation of the Romas from the scene was taking place, what was the reason and objective for this causing of panic”.

In yet another assault on freedom of expression and information, the Hungarian government adopted a new Constitution on Monday 18 April which will abolish independent oversight of the public’s right to know.

Leading Hungarian NGOs, Transparency International Hungary and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union besides expressing their criticism about the new Hungarian Constitution and the Constitution-writing process, wish to express their deep concern regarding the recent initiatives of the parliamentary majority to radically encroach upon the independence of the judiciary system.

Last year one of the first news about the text of the new Constitution was about the extension of right to life to the fetus. The bill submitted to the Parliament is about the protection of the right to life of the fetus. The nontransparent framing process of the Constitution and the lack of real public debate make it impossible to have a clear view on this issue. On March 31 HCLU and Patent Association gave out a joint press release.