Hungary passes controversial law 'protecting national sovereignty'
Hungary's right-wing populist government approved the law to defend against the alleged rise of undue political interference by foreign persons or groups.
Transcript
00:00 Hungary's right-wing populist government has passed a law, quote, "protecting national
00:06 sovereignty" to defend against what the ruling party has called "undue political interference
00:11 by foreign persons or groups."
00:14 A move slammed by experts.
00:17 "It is so widespread that an organization that has a public opinion on politics, obviously
00:29 and has an international relationship system, and these are not things that are out of the
00:36 blue, there may be a suspicion that it falls into the traps of this law, which are the
00:43 threats of undesirable sovereignty, or not."
00:50 The law calls for the creation of a new government authority that will have the power to gather
00:58 information on any groups or individuals that benefit from foreign funding for election
01:04 campaigns or groups that might influence public debate.
01:08 The law on national sovereignty has been passed, but it is still not known who exactly the
01:15 government wants to protect Hungary from.
01:17 Finally, the law states that it would be easy to label journalists of Euronews as foreign
01:22 businessmen.
01:23 Zoltán Siposegyi, Euronews, Budapest.
01:25 Szipos Egyi Zoltán, Euronews, Budapest.
01:27 [Whoosh]