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HUNGARY-ECHR: Press Release: Hungarian legislation on secret anti-terrorist surveillance does not have sufficient safeguards against abuse

13 January 2016

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"The case concerned Hungarian legislation on secret anti-terrorist surveillance introduced in 2011.

The Court accepted that it was a natural consequence of the forms taken by present-day terrorism that governments resort to cutting-edge technologies, including massive monitoring of communications, in pre-empting impending incidents.

However, the Court was not convinced that the legislation in question provided sufficient safeguards to avoid abuse. Notably, the scope of the measures could include virtually anyone in Hungary, with new technologies enabling the Government to intercept masses of data easily concerning even persons outside the original range of operation. Furthermore, the ordering of such measures was taking place entirely within the realm of the executive and without an assessment of whether interception of communications was strictly necessary and without any effective remedial measures, let alone judicial ones, being in place."

See the full text: Hungarian legislation on secret anti-terrorist surveillance does not have sufficient safeguards against abuse (pdf)

And: Judgment (pdf) See paras 68-89

Background: Szabo and Vissy v. Hungary - No Secret Surveillance Without Judicial Warrant (link)

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