The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU, www.tasz.hu ) lost the first round of a landmark Freedom of Information case decided by the Budapest Court on Monday, the 24th of January, 2004. In November, 2004, the HCLU appealed this decision to the Hungarian Constitutional Court, from which it is still awaiting a decision. HCLU also requested that the Budapest Court release the petition of Csaba Hende, Member of the Parliament, in order to shed further light on the government’s involvement in the Court’s decision making process. The Constitutional Court refused to release this petition. HCLU responded by filing a Freedom of Information case with the Budapest Court.<\/p>\n
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The Budapest Court stated on January 24, 2005 that the Constitutional Court cannot be forced to release the petition because the petition is not considered to be “information”. <\/span><\/strong>On some of the other relevant points of law the Budapest Court accepted HCLU’s arguments, making it clear that the Freedom of Information Act does apply to the Constitutional Court. <\/span>However, the fundamental question of what information should be considered “Public Interest Data” (the terminology used in the Hungarian Freedom of Information Act) remains unresolved by the decision of the Budapest Court.