On 6 November, Rita Csik, a journalist with the daily Nepszava newspaper, was charged with the “deliberate breach of a state secret” under Article 221 of the Hungarian Penal Code that is titled, “Violation of a State Secret,” which dates from the 1970’s.
Csik’s prosecution arises from an article written by her in May 2004 that cites a police memorandum concerning criminal evidence gathered about a member of parliament (MP). The memorandum discusses whether there is a need to remove the MP’s immunity from prosecution. Speaking about Csik’s case, Sandor Ihasz, the Chief Prosecutor of Budapest, described the memorandum as “classified.”
Under Article 221, Csik faces a possible prison sentence of between one to five years for “obtaining a state secret in an unauthorised manner.” The prison sentence is between two and eight years if the state secret obtained is “especially important,” and between five to 15 years where a so-called “incompetent foreign person” is the recipient of the secret.
Commenting on Csik’s prosecution, IPI Director, Johann P. Fritz said, “This is a worrying abuse of power under an outdated and outmoded law that should play no role in a country committed to freedom of the press and the free flow of information.”
“Hungary has had a long history of protecting officials from media scrutiny and I am extremely concerned that this protection is now being extended to so-called state secrets.”
“The fact that the document was not viewed as ‘classified’ by either a Parliamentary Commissioner on Data Protection and Information or a senior police officer shows that the prosecutor is behaving in a highly irregular fashion without regard to proper definitions under the law.”
“As a new member of the European Union, the prosecution of a journalist under a repressive security law for merely practicing her profession will damage Hungary’s reputation for democracy,” added Fritz.