The government of Hunagry is committed to the freedom of expression and consistently takes actions against hate speech, stressed Minister of Justice László Trócsányi in Budapest, on 06 June 2016 at a Hungarian-Israeli conference entitled Internet Usage and Responsibility.
His Israeli colleague Ayelet Shaked emphasized in her speech that incitement to hatred is represented in a new form today, this time on the internet.
As stated by the Hungarian minister antisemitism, anti-gypsyism and all sorts of prejudice and racism are slow poisons. Referring to the potential consequences of holocaust and hate speech he said: Shoah began by feeding prejudices and raising them to the level of official politics. Today hatred does not stop at the level of words: it continues to take its innocent victims in the form of brutal acts and acts of terrorism, László Trócsányi added.
According to the Hungarian Minister of Justice, the accusation that expression of opinion is under state control in Hungary is untrue. He reminded that following the fall of the communist dictatorship many thought that the best is, with a slight exaggeration, if the state does not impose prohibition on anything. On this basis, even the Constitutional Court had an extremely wide interpretation of freedom of speech and effective legal limitation of hate speech could not be achieved. That is the reason why the fourth amendment of the new Fundamental Law became necessary. In accordance with the former interpretations by the Constitutional Court, it provided that “the right to freedom of speech may not be exercised with the aim of violating the human dignity of others”. This provision of the Fundamental Law was transposed on different fields by the Hungarian legal system into the everyday life.
Pursuant to the Civil Code, solatium is to be paid to any person or community subjected to hate speech. Any member of a community is entitled to refer to the court within thirty days in the event of any serious defamation or any form of expression, made in large public, tantamount to unjustified humiliation of his/her national, ethnic, racial or religious community. In addition, the state of Hungary uses also the means of criminal law against hate speech. This is served, among others, by the applicable provisions of the Criminal Code on incitement against a community and the open denial of national-socialist crimes and communist crimes, as well as the provisions penalizing racism.
László Trócsányi drew attention to the fact that penalizing holocaust denial by means of the criminal law is still disputed. But, as he said, it is an illusion or cynicism not to realize that anyone who is in denial of the holocaust or questions its extent or nature sends a cryptic message: it would not be a problem if it happened again.
Hungarian law also includes measures that are designed to address unacceptable online contents, such as rendering temporarily or permanently inaccessible data disclosed through an electronic communications network. Moreover, the protection of human dignity granted in the Fundamental Law is completed by those media law provisions that allow for the imposition of considerable amounts of penalty, the obligation of disclosing a decision of condemnation or the temporary suspension of media service.
László Trócsányi underlined that hate speech is no longer a nation-state problem and combating it can only be effective through international cooperation.
He also added: effective international action faces serious obstacles overseas where the interpretation of freedom of expression differs from that in Europe. The Hungarian courts made unsuccessful attempts with American authorities to block inciting and offensive online contents and to call the service providers to account.
"We are facing a serious problem in common that may ruin our rule of law and democratic values. Our common goal and joint responsibility is to do our best to suppress the incitement to hatred. (…) Freedom of expression must be and can be reconciled with the respect for other’s rights and dignity”, the Hungarian Minister emphasized.
At the conference, Israel’s Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked pointed out that nowadays incitement to hatred has a new form, it appears on the internet and frequently terrorist organisations are behind it. The Israeli minister warned that entire societies may be staggered by hate speeches and lies distributed on the internet. Last year in Israel online hate speech generated a “terrible wave of terror”. In the territories under Palestinian Authority such lies are spread that are suitable to challenge the credibility of Israel, the politician said.
According to Ayelet Shaked there is an urgent need to identify the problems and to find solutions. The ministry headed by her has made a proposal on limiting internet service providers offering contents suitable for disturbing public order and there is also a need to protect public service employees from offensive contents. For instance, judges in Israel are exposed to attacks of an “appalling extent”, noted the minister.
She emphasized that service providers play at least as significant a role in combating hate speech as the states. In Israel the contents on Google, Facebook and Twitter are monitored in cooperation with the companies involved and the service providers remove 70% of illegal contents proposed to be removed by the public body, she added.
It is important to preserve freedom of expression but it has to be reconciled with the freedom of internet and we should also bear in mind that “the era of darkness will not end without a difficulty”, it poses a threat in ever new forms, said Israel’s Minister of Justice.
The main organisers of the conference entitled Internet Usage and Responsibility - legal means to curb online hate speech were the Hungarian and the Israeli Minister of Justice.
(MTI)
