Hungary’s liberal opposition Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) has asked Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to indicate when classified material from the communist past will be made public, a senior party member told MTI on Wednesday.
The party has filed questions to Gyorgy Szilvasy, the minister in charge of the civilian state security services, but has yet to receive any satisfactory reply, said Jozsef Gulyas.
Historians are concerned that magnetic tapes used before 1990 to store classified data could soon become degraded. The tapes have a life expectancy of 15-20 years. Krisztian Ungvary, a historian who belonged to a committee which examined secret documents from before the change of political system, earlier warned that data stored on the tapes needed to be rescued without delay.
The secret-service data from before 1990 is not available in comparable detail in any other form.
The committee proposed that the contents of the tapes, which classified until 2060, should be printed and the data reviewed.
Gulyas said his party wanted to know when the justice ministry plans to prepare the bill, whether the government merely plans to amend an old bill which the Free Democrats regard as unacceptable, or whether the government would be ready to prepare new legislation.
Last year, the committee at the time recommended new legislation to guarantee public access to the documents. Its full report was published on the Prime Minister’s Office homepage in October.
Gulyas said he was concerned about Szilvasy’s “ambiguous” response in respect of the condition of magnetic tapes in possession of the secret services. He said Szilvasy had written that some “work” had been done with them, but had not specified what and for what purpose.
The main concern of the liberal party is to make sure that the government takes care of data pertaining to the country’s recent past, Gulyas said.
It is ready to prepare its own bill on the issue and submit to parliament during its spring session, he added.
