(Bloomberg) -- A court in Budapest obliged Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to apologize to a human rights organization for making false statements about it in the buildup to last month's elections, in a rare victory for NGOs amid an increasing official crackdown.
The government has to publish an apology in a central part of its official website kormany.hu for 30 days for harming the reputation of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in materials distributed to 8 million voters, the committee said on its Facebook page, citing the court ruling. The court also upheld a lower court's other penalties including compensation of 2 million forints ($7,600).
Orban won a third consecutive term in April after a campaign obsessed with the threat of immigration and what he calls a "shadow army" of NGOs financed by Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros. According to the court ruling, a self-styled survey of voters by the government falsely alleged the Helsinki Committee was protecting immigrants who committed crimes, using Soros's funds, the committee said.
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Spokesmen for the government didn't immediately respond to phone calls for comment on the ruling.
--With assistance from Marton Eder
To contact the reporter on this story: Gabriella Lovas in Budapest at glovas2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely, Elizabeth Konstantinova
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