Barbara Grabowska participates together with other local and international experts in a seminar that provides a space for reflection on the main challenges faced by media representatives, journalists and members of civil society in Hungary.
For several years, Hungary has been facing continuous challenges in the field of rule of law and shortcomings in the protection of fundamental rights. Being the focus of attention of the European Union and facing several infringement proceedings brought by the European Commission before the Court of Justice of the EU, it has been, together with Poland, one of the countries to be subject to the conditionality mechanism that allows restricting the granting of European funds to protect the Union’s budget from the consequences of the violation of the principles of the rule of law.
One of the main challenges facing the country is the protection of freedom of expression and media pluralism, resulting from the adoption of restrictive measures such as the so-called “child protection law”; which limited access to written material on LGBT+ issues, to the use of intelligence networks and pro-government media.
In this regard, the Rule of Law Clinic (RoL Clinic) of the Institute of Democracy of the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, of which Barbara Grabowska is the Director, organized in collaboration with relevant institutions such as Transparency International Hungary and the Justice Defenders Program of the Center for Human Rights of the American Bar Association, a seminar with the participation of experts in the field to reflect on the challenges for freedom of expression in Hungary.
The event reflected on the most recent challenge in the Hungarian free speech and media landscape, namely the adoption of a “protection of national sovereignty” law that gives the government unlimited discretion to investigate civil society organizations and others that the Hungarian government deems to be engaged in political activities “influencing democratic debate and the decision-making process”.
The seminar included the participation of David Kaye, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and current Professor of International Law at the University of California at Irvine, who emphasized the strength and importance of these rights as well as popular sovereignty in their protection.
Focusing on the consequences of the European Parliament elections and the Hungarian local elections of June 9 for the functioning of the free media, as well as the effects of the “protection of popular sovereignty” law on civil society, David Kaye celebrated the Hungarian resistance and the important role played by Hungarian organizations and individuals committed to the defense of fundamental rights.
Professor Kaye’s speech was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Benjamin Novak, former reporter at The New York Times, in which several academic experts, including Fernanda Nicola, Miklos Ligeti, Andras Kaglar, Bea Bodrogi, Dimitry Kochenov and Barbara Grabowska, reflected on the threats to freedom of expression in Hungary.
In particular, Barbara Grabowska reflected on the question of whether values are just a nice part of the EU Treaties or whether they are law, in which case, they must be enforced. In this task, she said, “time is a crucial factor”. She also mentioned that the hope of success depends on the actors and that, in this task, the Commission is not and should not be the only actor; it needs to know what is happening in Hungary and, for this, academics and civil society organizations play an essential role.
Dr. Grabowska also recalled the victims of the Pegasus spy program that the previous Polish government implemented to intercept communications in the country’s electoral scenario in 2019.
Finally, the researcher alluded to the recent case of the European Court of Human Rights in which she has participated as a plaintiff in an issue related to private surveillance in Poland, and the importance of the fact that the current Polish Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar made a public statement stating that he would implement the judgment, something that undoubtedly represents a great step forward compared to the previous Polish executive.
