"Hungary: NGO law a vicious and calculated assault on civil society", 13 Jun 2017

The passing of a law stigmatising non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive foreign funding is the latest in an escalating crackdown on critical voices and will hamper critically important work by civil society groups, said Amnesty international... The Law on the transparency of organizations funded from abroad will force NGOs receiving more than 24,000 EUR direct or indirect funding from abroad to re-register as “civic organization funded from abroad” and to put this pejorative label on every publication.“Threadbare attempts to disguise this law as being necessary to protect national security cannot hide its real purpose: to stigmatize, discredit and intimidate critical NGOs and hamper their vital work[.]" “This latest assault on civil society...has...echoes of Russian’s draconian ‘foreign agents’ law[.]” By forcing NGOs...to label themselves as “foreign funded”, the Hungarian government is seeking to discredit their work and turn people against them. “This vicious and calculated assault on the rights to freedom of expression and association is a serious miscalculation and contravenes Hungary’s human rights obligations. It must be challenged on all levels[.]”