The government’s bill to amend the constitution seeks to facilitate a more efficient fight against hate speech, deputy Justice Minister Dezso Avarkeszi said in a parliamentary debate of the bill on Tuesday.
The bill, if passed by parliament, will result in stricter punishment for the incitement of hatred on an ethnic, racial or religious basis and for the spreading of racist ideologies even if those acts do not directly violate other people’s fundamental rights or public order, Avarkeszi said.
Avarkeszi added that the bill was not aimed at introducing new restrictions in the constitution, but including stipulations in international agreements Hungary had signed.
In June last year, the Constitutional Court voted down a new hate-speech law sponsored by the minority governing Socialist Party seeking to protect minorities from offensive remarks and acts.
“Voicing an extremist or racist opinion in a free and democratic country does not compromise the foundations or the operations of society,” the Court said in a statement at the time.
The new law would have “involved a disproportionate restriction of the right for expression,” it said.
