President
National Media and News Communication Authority

Dear President,

In an interview given to the index.hu portal on 10 October, 2010 (http://index.hu/kultur/media/2010/10/19/ha_kell_elerhetetlenne_tehetjuk_a_kuruczinfot_is/) you are reported to have said the following: ’For example, if on the website Kurucinfo we find contents that seriously offend against the laws, then, I think, the internet service providers will have to be forced to make that page inaccessible.’ In this letter we call your attention to certain contents on kuruc.info that seriously offend against the laws of the Hungarian Republic and ask you to take action to make that website inaccessible once and for all.

We are well aware that the Constitution of the Hungarian Republic fully protects the freedom of thought, speech and the press, and we emphatically support this basic value commitment of all European democracies. Nevertheless, it is inadmissible that reference to the freedom of speech allows ever more persons to disseminate materials and calls that threaten democracy, are unconstitutional, and incite to nationalist, antisemitic and xenophobic sentiments.

The contents appearing on kuruc.info regularly and deliberately offend against the inalienable basic rights and human dignity of certain ethnic, religious and cultural groups like the Roma, Jews, and homosexuals.  The Constitution of the Hungarian Republic declares that ’respect for, and protection of [these rights] is a state duty of first order (§ 8, 1); that it guarantees the right to human dignity to all persons (§ 54, 1); and that ’the Hungarian Republic protects national and ethnic minorities’ (§ 68, 2).

These paragraphs oblige you as the head of the state institution in charge of the direction and control of the media to take legal action to have that website shut down.

Law CIV/2010 that summarizes the basic rules applying to the freedom of the press and to media contents, extends to media content that are edited in Hungary but published by media content providers abroad (§ 3, 2.b). § 3, 5 extends to media content provision from abroad if that content is ’to a large part or wholly directed to the territory of the Hungarian Republic ’. Since both criteria are fulfilled by kuruc.info, the law must be applied in its case.

The website kuruc.info continuously and systematically offends against § 4, 3 of the law CIV/2010 that declares: ’The freedom of the press may not be used to commit a crime or incite to crime’. The website regularly publishes writings that deny the Holocaust, e.g. „We express our appreciation of the revisionists, heroes of our age, by presenting a Holo-fake Dossier” (http://kuruc.info/r/39/36213/); „A piece of Holo-denial to mark ’the international day of antifascism’” and ’Heaps of corpses and starved prisoners cannot serve as evidence for the official Holocaust story” (http://kuruc.info/r/6/69228/), "How could the final number of victims amount to 6 millions in spite of a decrease of 2,9 millions?"  (http://kuruc.info/r/6/69238/); „The tales of Holo-fake – the Hungarian version of the popular comic book” (http://kuruc.info/r/22/58830/), „Holo-religion for children: human soap and gas from the shower” (http://kuruc.info/r/6/47445/). We abstain from citing further examples and merely point out that the denial of the Holocaust is a crime in Hungary (see Law CIV/2010, § 7).

The website kuruc.info offends against §  16 of the law CIV/2010 when it disregards the Constitution of the Hungarian Republic by overt fascist propaganda activity, including lengthy quotes from Adolf Hitler (see „What is Adolf Hitler’s message to [the political party] Jobbik?” http://kuruc.info/r/9/69084/).

The website kuruc.info offends against §  14 of the law CIV/2010 by its disregard of human dignity. It regularly refers to Hungarian citizens of Roma ethnicity by offensive designations („mongrels” „sooty feet”, etc.) that stigmatize a whole ethnic group and deeply offend the self-respect and dignity of the Roma in this country. This behaviour significantly contributes to the spreading hatred of the Roma, to the aggravation of conflicts among ethnic Hungarian and ethnic Roma citizens and, in general, to a further deterioration of the political climate of our country.

The website kuruc.info offends both against §  17, 1 of the law CIV/2010 and against § 260 of the Penal Code, which prohibit incitement against any community. The content it publishes is not only capable of inciting hatred against an ethnic or religious group but is expressly designed to do so. It features two specific columns called „Gypsy Criminality” (http://kuruc.info/t/35/) and „Jewish Criminality” (http://kuruc.info/t/39/), respectively, to arouse hatred against Roma and Jews.

Consequently, kuruc.info offends against § 17, 2 of the law CIV/2010 by continuously, regularly and openly offending ethnic and religious groups and calling to their social exclusion.

You have also supported Law CIV/2010 that declares (§ 21, 1): ’The provider of media content independently decides, within the confines of the law, on publishing media content and is responsible for keeping this law’. Actions of the website kuruc.info continuously and consciously infringe against several paragraphs of the law CIV/2010 and the Constitution of the Hungarian Republic. On the above listed grounds we demand that you take immediate action to achieve the final prohibition of the website kuruc.info.

We intend to make this letter public.

On behalf of the signatories,
Péter Niedermüller
Tibor Derdák