(18 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Budapest, Hungary – 18 March 2025
1. Demonstrators holding smoke bombs while shouting UPSOUND (Hungarian) "Gathering is a principle right!”
2. Various of a man holding a smoke bomb
UPSOUND (Hungarian) "We are not afraid! Orbán go away!”
3. Wide of police pushing away a protester
4. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Viràg Lovas, demonstrator: "What is happening in the country is worrisome. They are trying to take away more and more from the Hungarian people what is actually ours and our rights.”
5. Mid of a demonstrator chanting
UPSOUND (Hungarian) "Dirty Fidesz!”
6. Pan of police
7. Mid of protesters chanting
UPSOUND (Hungarian) "We want democracy!”
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Evgeny Belyakov, demonstrator from Russia:
"It’s quite terrifying to be honest. Because we had the same in Russia, it was building up step by step, and this is what I feel is going on here. I’m not surprised that Viktor Orban doesn’t have any original ideas. He only copies Putin or Trump. But it’s really terrifying. I just only hope that there will be more resistance like this in Hungary. Because in Russia we didn’t resist on time and now it’s too late.”
9. Pan of the crowd
UPSOUND (Hungarian) "Dirty Fidesz!”
10. Wide of woman holding a smoke bomb
UPSOUND (Hungarian) "We are not afraid!
11. Wide of police
12. Pan of demonstrators lighting their phones
STORYLINE:
Hungarians have protested against a new, anti-LGBTQ+ bill banning Pride events in the country.
Several thousand protesters chanting anti-government slogans gathered after the vote outside Hungary’s parliament and staged a blockade of the Margaret Bridge over the Danube, blocking traffic and disregarding police instructions to leave the area.
Hungary’s ruling coalition continued its crackdown on the country’s LBGTQ+ community on Tuesday, with the majority of lawmakers in the parliament accepting a bill that would ban the popular Budapest Pride event and allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attendees.
The bill passed easily as the ruling coalition of Hungary’s populist Viktor Orbán has a two-thirds majority in parliament.
The bill would make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious "child protection” legislation, which prohibits the "depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors under 18.
The new law met fierce criticism by opponents.
"What is happening in the country is worrisome. They are trying to take away more and more from the Hungarian people what is actually ours and our rights” Viràg Lovas, one of the protesters said.
According to the new law, attending a prohibited event would carry fines up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546), which the state would forward to "child protection.”
The accepted bill is the latest step against LGBTQ+ people taken by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose government has passed legislation that rights groups and other European politicians have decried as repressive against sexual minorities.
The nationalist-populist Fidesz party and Orbán, are widely considered allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Evgeny Belyakov, a Russian citizen who immigrated to Hungary after facing repression in Russia, said at the protest it was "quite terrifying."
"Because we had the same in Russia, it was building up step by step and this is what I feel going on here. I just only hope that there will be more resistance like this in Hungary. Because in Russia we didn’t resist on time, and now it’s too late.”
AP video by: Nikolett Csányi
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