Hungarian investigative portal sues Sovereignty Protection Office

The investigative portal Átlátszó is launching a personal rights lawsuit against the Sovereignty Protection Office, because the newspaper considers the findings of the Office's report about them "unfounded and, in many cases, downright untruthful". According to a statement published on Átlátszó’s website, the newspaper says that the Office "investigated them because part of their funds came from foreign institutional sponsors", even though the law on the protection of sovereignty only allows the Office to investigate activities carried out "in the interest" of another state or foreign body or person, as well as a political party’s activities financed by foreign funding. The paper also argues that under the Law on the Protection of Sovereignty, the Office does not have the authority to investigate the operations of Átlátszó.

All this essentially means that a state body, which exists and operates in violation of the Basic Law, is taking public measures against lawfully performed journalistic activity in a state – which, according to the Basic Law, is governed by the rule of law

– the newspaper wrote.

The Sovereignty Protection Office opened an investigation into the activities of Átlátszó on 25 June, claiming that it had been proven that "the organisation, which defines itself as an investigative portal, is part of a complex international network that represents the interests of its financiers instead of those of the target country". According to the Office, the complex, multi-organisational funding of Atlatszo.hu is not transparent, the financial reports of the Asimov Foundation, the Atlatszo.hu Foundation and atlatszo.hu Nkft are "at times confusing and contradictory, and the context of the funding and the use of the same is often impossible to trace".

Tamás Bodoky, the editor-in-chief of Átlátszó, told Telex last week that they had not received the office's report prior to its publication. Bodoky said that "our activity is journalism, not gathering intelligence, as the Sovereignty Protection Office is trying to imply".

The European Commission launched infringement proceedings against Hungary in February over the Sovereignty Protection Act, which the commission says violates several provisions of primary and secondary EU law.