Court ruling: police unlawfully prevented Telex from interviewing Orbán

The Metropolitan Court of Budapest ruled that the police setting up a cordon around the building housing the prime minister's office on 2 December 2020 to prevent journalists at the scene from questioning the arriving government officials and the prime minister was unnecessary and disproportionate. According to the ruling, during the incident the police violated the journalists' right to freedom of expression.

This was the day when we tried to ask the members of the government what they thought about József Szájer (Fidesz-delegated MEP) being caught breaking Covid lockdown-rules by attending an orgy in Brussels, where drugs were reportedly found in his bag. We were able to interview Justice Minister Judit Varga and Deputy PM Zsolt Semjén, but not the other ministers, because members of the riot police unexpectedly completely cordoned off the building of the Prime Minister's office with two separate cordons. The move was justified saying that a protected person was arriving. (English subtitles are available for both videos.)

As the journalists of Telex (Tamás Fábián and Máté Szilágyi), we filed a complaint with the police with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

In our opinion, the police closed the area off unlawfully, thereby violating our right to journalistic work concerning important public affairs and our freedom of expression, which are of key importance in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. Our complaint was rejected by the police so we took the case to court with the help of civil rights lawyers.

In the first court case, the court ordered the police to reopen the case because they had previously failed to carry out any 'fact-finding' and had not even conducted any hearings with anyone, including the police officers who were present. This was remedied in the summer of 2021, but both the Riot Police and the National Police Headquarters (ORFK), acting as second instance, rejected the complaint again, claiming that the arrival of a protected person, (the prime minister), required the implementation of so-called "facility securing measures," the Hungarian Helsinki Committee said in a statement.

In its latest judgment, in the summer of 2022, the Metropolitan Court ruled that the arrival of a protected person was not in itself a reason to seal off the area, and that the police had to justify why the closure was necessary and proportionate.

On 13 April 2023, after the third court hearing, the Metropolitan Court ruled:

the measure was unnecessary and disproportionate, and it also infringed the journalists' right to freedom of expression, and therefore the two journalists' complaints were well-founded.

The police officers justified their decision to set up the cordon with vague arguments. These included the arrival of a protected person and "the appearing of a bigger number of uninspected persons to the area between the main entrance of the former Carmelite Monastery (now the PM's office) and the former Defence Headquarters".

However, as evidenced in our video, the "significant number of uninspected persons" was roughly five journalists doing their public interest-related work (the three-person HVG video crew was also trying to do their work at the scene. They also testified as witnesses in the proceedings). On the basis of the video recordings made by the Telex team, the court found that the "large grouping" cited by the police was only the journalists, and that there was no one else on site, while the police only cited the "prevention of violations" as the reason for the closure, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee writes.

However, these are not sufficient reasons to justify the need for cordoning off the area, so the court concluded that the cordoning off was unlawful and violated the journalists' right to freedom of expression by preventing them from carrying out their work in a proper environment. Although the court was not able to comment on the real reason for the closure, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee it seems clear that its purpose was solely to hinder the journalists in carrying out their work.

They say it will only be there until the end of the construction

In the year following Szájer's scandal, it was relatively easy to interview government officials in front of the Carmelite Monastery, and the answers given often had informative value. This was the last place where it was still possible to ask leading politicians substantive questions.

This was also where we conducted our last interview with Pál Völner, after the Pegasus-affair broke out, and where Judit Varga, the Minister of Justice, said that she wasn't the one signing off on authorisations approving secret surveillance, and where we were able to show how, unlike most ministers, Antal Rogán regularly evades the press.

In November 2021, we started to shoot a video in which we attempted to show who the individuals officially not linked to the government are, who regularly appear at the Prime Minister's office.

On 25 November, we were still filming in the public area of Színház street, but the next morning we were surprised to find that the entire length of the street, through which one can approach the building complex housing the Prime Minister's Office had been closed off.

Színház utca has been closed for construction ever since, and Minister Gergely Gulyás has said at a government briefing that he would not allow the press to ask questions there even after the construction was completed. In recent weeks, members of Momentum's parliamentary faction and independent MP Ákos Hadházy have repeatedly dismantled the cordon, of which Csaba Dömötör, State Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office has said that it will remain only as long as the construction continues.