Everyone is Entitled to Their Opinion, Especially My Lawyer

I've got a great story to tell you about a certain politician who everyone who is anyone in Hungary knows is a lying, cheating and double-dealing swine. But I'm not going to say anything, because I've already been threatened with a lawsuit once this month, and that's my quota. But if you like seeing people sued for saying mean stuff about politicians and other public figures, don't worry. In the last week, there have been several such suits decided in Hungary, each of which makes me wonder whether Hungary is really a free country, and which collectively make me wonder why I even bother wondering. In short, this country is suffering from an epidemic of libel litigation so bad Hungary may soon find itself downgraded by established international watchdogs from a "fully free" country to one in which freedom of speech and the press cannot be taken for granted.

The week in libel started out with a bang, with a decision by a Budapest court that then-political scientist (and current minister of culture) András Bozóki and broadsheet Magyar Hírlap had improperly damaged the reputation of opposition leader and former prime minister Viktor Orbán, and must pay Orbán Ft 500,000 (roughly €2,000). Back in September of 2003 Bozóki had written in Magyar Hírlap that the sale of a publicly-owned property ten years earlier had enriched certain families in the Fidesz fold, and accused Orbán and his family of using political power to get rich.

Bozóki (left) and Orbán: You talked, and now you pay

Bozóki had based his defense on the fact that his article drew on a book by another author, József Debreczeni, which provided an account of the business transactions in question. Since Orbán hadn't sued Debreczeni - and had apparently even complimented the book - Bozóki's lawyer argued that he could hardly sue those who repeated charges leveled in the book.

Orbán's attorney replied by saying that, even though his client hadn't taken action against Debreczeni and had complimented the book, this didn't mean that everything in the book was correct. Moreover, whether he had sued someone in the past did not matter now. Bozóki's attorney has said the minister will appeal the decision to the Fővárosi Ítélőtábla (Budapest Judgment Board) which will make the final decision in the case.

Meanwhile, Magyar Hírlap isn't sure whether it will appeal. "We are responsible for Bozóki's words, because we printed them," editor-in-chief Pál Szombathy told me by Friday by phone. Szombathy said that what Bozóki wrote was his opinion, based on Debreczeni's book. "Whether this fits into 'fee expression of opinion' is an interesting question."

On Tuesday came Budapest Mayor Gábor Demsky's turn to see his enemies end up facing a legal judgment for writing something he didn't like, in this case articles alleging that Demszky had dodged taxes and forged a buy-sell contract when purchasing and renovating a villa on the Croatian coast. The court ruled that right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet, daily Budapesti Reggel and tabloid Színes Bulvár Lap must print corrections saying that their allegations regarding Demszky's Croatian property were false, even though, as with the Orbán-Bozóki case, the three were simply relaying stories printed in the Croatian press. In explaining his ruling, Judge Árpád Pataki pointed out that newspapers are responsible for what they print, even if it is information they take from another news source.

The mayor can now enjoy his Croatian vacations without worrying about the pesky press

In addition to the three papers, Demszky also sued online news portal Index.hu and Hír TV. The case against Index was dropped after the portal published a correction, while the court dismissed one complaint against Hír TV. Apparently the argument was over whether the news channel had featured images of Croatian properties that belong to Demszky, or someone else's villas. But Demszky and Hír TV will return to court on Monday (April 25) to argue over whether another of their segments - which similarly discussed the reports from the Croatian media as if they were true - requires an on-air correction.

Finally, on Thursday a lawyer for the president of Hungarian Radio said that she had won a judgment against left-wing daily Népszava. Apparently the daily had run a story saying that Katalin Kondor had had connections to the state security services back in the latter years of Communist rule. Kondor alleged that the documents published by the paper proving that she was a spook were forged, and that their aim was to damage the reputation of Hungarian Radio and its president.

So who is right and who is wrong?

Well, despite the official rulings, I have no idea what the real story is with these stories, and my guess is that no one else does, at least aside from Orbán, Demszky and Kondor. Because as far as I am concerned, the last place you will ever find out if a story is true or not is in a court of law, where the thing that normal people call "truth" is generally subordinated to precedent and legal formalism.

But frankly I am less concerned about the nitty-gritty of these specific cases than the fact that there were three such major rulings in one week. Because, as I said, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Magyar mania for turning every disputed newspaper article into a civil or even criminal case is seriously jeopardizing the nation's sociopolitical health.

So what needs to be done? Well, the first thing that needs to happen is for the country's notorious criminal penalties for defamation to be revoked. My former colleague and friend Miklós Haraszti, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's media freedom representative, is pushing hard for this. (It is important to note that the above cases are only civil in nature, meaning that the defendants do not risk jail time, unlike right-wing journalist Andás Bencsik, who narrowly escaped nearly a year in the joint for slandering left-wing MP Imre Mécs.)

It is also crucial that Hungary fully adopt a decade-old decision by the Constitutional Court that public figures like Orbán, Demszky and Kondor must accept that they do not have the same rights to keeping their "reputation" unsullied as an individual who chooses to lead a private life. If you elect to become an elected official, or some other big dog, you should expect that occasionally people will call you a pooch.

Overall, though, I would say that the most important thing is for everyone to understand that the media is more of a "self-cleansing" organism than it is usually given credit for. Especially because of the proliferation of online media, the power of one or a handful of media outlets to get away with broadcasting falsehoods is increasingly limited. To put it bluntly, when you print or broadcast bullshit, eventually you start smelling pretty bad too. Even the most die-hard partisans of a dishonest newspaper, TV station or internet site eventually stop believing if the BS is shoveled on too thick, and they go somewhere else.

Meanwhile, if politicians like this week's "winners" keep turning to the courts to punish those they accuse of lying, it could come back to haunt them. Who know? One day there may be a court that ordinary people can take politicians to when they are caught saying something that might not be true. And if that happens, you can bet there will be more than three judgments every week.