Hungarian parliament passes new assembly law

The Hungarian parliament on Friday adopted a new assembly law to replace legislation passed back in 1989.

Under the new law, passed with 131 votes in favour and 56 against, “anyone will have the right to organise or participate in peaceful and unarmed demonstrations“. As defined by the new legislation, a “meeting” is an event “attended by at least two people with the aim of publicly express their opinion on some public affair”.

Public meetings shall be announced to the police at least 48 hours prior to the actual event.

The national assembly adopted an amendment to the penal code, under which people disrupting public events could be punished with up to one year in prison, while the punishment could be up to two years imprisonment if the person “violently disobeys” the organiser of the event.

The assembly law will take effect on October 1.

Parliament also passed a law aimed at ensuring increased protection to privacy, with 153 deputies supporting the proposal and 34 voting against it.

Under the new law “everybody is entitled to respect for their private and family life, home or contacts”.

The legislation stipulates that public officials are entitled to the same protection as private individuals “outside the discussion of public affairs”. Public officials’ activities in their private life or information thereabout are outside the public realm, according to the new stipulations.

Photo by Guavin Pictures

Source: MTI