About 10,000 people gathered in Budapest to protest a bill by the right-wing populist government that many Hungarians say aims to curtail fundamental rights and suppress independent media, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The protest, the latest in a wave of anti-government demonstrations, came days after a lawmaker from Prime Minister Viktor Orban's party introduced a bill in parliament that would allow the government to monitor, restrict, punish and possibly ban the activities of media outlets and non-governmental organizations deemed to threaten the country's sovereignty.
The bill, which has been compared to Russia's "foreign agents" law, is expected to be approved by parliament, where the ruling Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority, the AP notes. According to many of Orban's opponents, the texts will allow Orban to implement some of the most repressive policies of the last 15 years in power.
Protesters gathered in the square behind the parliament in Budapest to express their dissatisfaction with the bill, which would allow the government to include organizations receiving financial support from another country on a list and make them subject to surveillance and searches. The new texts also provide for large fines, as well as a ban on the activities of such organizations.
Politicians from Orban's party, as well as the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty - a parliamentary body whose job is to identify alleged threats to Hungarian sovereignty, have named numerous media outlets and anti-corruption organizations that they say serve foreign interests.
"Yes" to political disputes, "yes" to freedom of speech, but "no" to foreign funding," Prime Minister Orbán said today, as quoted by the Hungarian news agency MTI. "What kind of person would fight against his own country? What kind of person would be proud to prevent the renovation of 50 Hungarian hospitals, and what kind of person would have a master instead of a homeland and would seek benefits from Kiev and Brussels, and not the love of Hungarians," he added.
"All this was abolished in America and it is time for Hungary to follow suit," Orbán said, adding that those involved in politics should not receive funding from abroad.