A Hungarian journalist brought the lawsuit, saying the definition of what counts as a public figure should be expanded to include religious officials. Leaders of the Jewish community and Catholic and Protestant churches insist they are "not public figures" and therefore not eligible to reveal their past.
The Budapest Municipal Court told the Hungarian News Agency MTI that six church leaders qualify as "public figures" and data on their possible pasts as informers must be made public if requested.
However only historians, researchers and people affected are allowed to see the files. It was not clear what "researchers" meant, but it was expected to include media personnel.
HUNGARIAN LEADERS
The case, launched in 2005, involved the leader of The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) Gusztav Zoltai, the retired national supervisor of the Hungarian Evangelical Church Robert Frenkl, retired chairman-bishop of the Hungarian Evangelical Church Imre Szebik, former chairman of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference Istvan Seregely and two other high officials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, MTI reported.
Legislation on access to secret police files has yet to be passed, but Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, himself a former Communist, has said that opening the files and making the archive available on the Internet requires a "political consensus."
Politicians, judges and journalists have been screened for their possible work as spies before the democratic changes began 17 years ago. Religious leaders and union representatives were so far exempted. The court’s decision, which can be appealed, comes amid a growing debate in Eastern Europe about the past role of church leaders in the Communist system.
POLAND’S TROUBLES
Poland ’s 45 bishops agreed January 11, to request a review of their Communist-era past following a new archbishop’s abrupt resignation over disclosures he spied for the old regime.
A visibly shaken Archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, resigned and confessed to his church members that he was an informant for the Communist secret services. A day later, another church leader stepped down for the same reason.
It has led to tensions within especially large denominations as many devoted Christians as well as church leaders opposing the Communist regime were persecuted by the Communist secret services in the region.
