Jobbik would review new secrecy legislation

Jobbik vice-chairman Novak

Instead of signing the ominous legislation spawned from the latest dubious cooperation of MSZP and Fidesz aiming at unconstitutional classifications of state secrecy information, Jobbik expects Laszlo Solyom to require preliminary norm control from the highest legal authority of the land, the Constitutional Court of Hungary in order to settle the matter.

According to the new law - doubtless unheard of in any democracy worthy of such denomination other than the byzantine-, no confidential, secreted documents deserving public scrutiny ruled classified by virtue of their (ir)relevance and the two-third majority law amendment may be made public, even if they were illegally classified in the first place.

In terms of handling such classified information, parliamentary representatives of Jobbik -for instance- stumbling intentionally or accidentally upon such abuse, could conveniently be charged with concealment of, aiding and abetting or uncovering a crime by the amended law. 

Government proposal T/6147 would have granted opportunity to request a court review of related classified information for everyone interested, but with the amendment submitted by politico-maffiose Karoly Toth of MSZP, the clause for access to basic rights to freedom of information concerning public records was conveniently and purposely eliminated from it.

Aside from the fact that this is only the latest insult to injury allowing for no rehab as the above individual proposing it this time around is expected to be bumped wholesale out of his parliamentary seat, it is simply just another outrage we've grown accustomed to during the reign of the two parties, masquerading as each others' opposition for the last eight years. 

Examples of such fundamental conflict in constitutionality have been highlighted by the Association for Civil Rights and other civil groups before, who can by no means be accused of promoting Jobbik's advocacy for political accountability. Consequently, even extraordinary secrecy sensitive standards may go unobserved in the course of classification in the future.

Anything could be classified i.e.: sanctioning protest against monopolizing the free market, sanctioning by virtue of protection against slander and tarnishing of good reputation of individuals and organizations involved in corporate abuse, theft, embezzlement, concealment of absence of corporate law-abidance.
Reinforced by the votes of Fidesz the law did sail through and pass on Toth's proposal omitting the paramount clause, that information should only be classified, if its need to government secrecy overrides its mandate to constitutional public scrutiny.  

The crime-politicos even voted down the clause, whereby statistics may be presented and publicized by the National Security Agency about the volume of collected intelligence data and their classification prepared by their respective government organs. In contrast, Jobbik promotes a free, public catalogueing system, where mandatory reviews of classifications can be tracked and related documents may be immediately downloaded upon declassification.

Refusal of bumping up the statute of limitations on government minutes, summaries, audio and video clips from 10 to 25 years by SZDSZ can only be regarded as the last confessional urge of a dying man, for whom nothing matters any longer.  Similarly, cooperation of MSZP and Fidesz points toward the grand coalition, when they vote down the amending clause saying that the classification is deemed invalid, if at its inception the determining legal conditions were absent, meaning a document may remain secret even if it was unlawfully classified.

The possibility of launching court review of classifications became ever more a formality, while the ever shrinking power of the ombudsman's office degenerated into plain audacity.

Court reviews can be and could have been initiated by the Commissioner of Secret Information to this day and all along, but throughout the past 14 years not once did the ombudsman assert the power invested in the office! Nothing is more indicative of the mushrooming phenomenon of crimo-politics than the blunt action of its representatives sanctioning a proposed amendment that would have equipped any citizen of the country, to initiate declassification of secret infromation by court challenge.

In case of culprits guilty of sanctioning felony secrecy classification, Jobbik promotes levying charges and introduction of harsh penalties. The present-day law sanctions individuals who publicize information of minor value and relevance, while parliamentary representatives who uncover and unmask significant, serious breaches of constitutionality will likely face incarceration and suspension of parliamentary immunity from prosecution. The MSZP-Fidesz pact does not exempt an individual from prosecution, who may make information public on grounds of the public's right to know, even if that right supersedes the need for secrecy, i.e: information leading to unmasking million dollar corruption scandals, etc.

Jobbik, joining rights activist organizations, takes exception in the two-party cooperative law, where only the owner of the specific secret information may press charges in case of a leak or publication thereof since as such only the political maffia can decide who would be prosecuted for breach of state secrecy laws.

In order to uncover irregularities and unlawful conduct, Jobbik is intent on reviewing not just the current practice of secrecy classification, but all previous cases retroactively. Extension of time limit in the statute of limitations is paramount including the date of classification, as it applies to suspension rules of parliamentary immunity already.

Elod Novak

Vice-Chairman, Jobbik