Free speech worries over new Hungary law

Some bookstores in Hungary this week placed notices at their entrances alerting customers that they are selling books containing "non-traditional content".

The move is a response to a recent Hungarian law that some writers and publishers say narrows free thought and expression in literature.

One of Hungary's largest bookstore chains, Lira Konyv, posted the notices in an effort to avoid violating the law, passed by Hungary's parliament last month, that prohibits "depicting or promoting" homosexuality or sex reassignment in school programs or media content aimed at minors.

While that law has already taken effect, the government has yet to to issue official guidance on how it will be applied - leaving many in Hungary's literary community unsure of whether works containing homosexual themes that they write, distribute or sell will end up in the hands of minors, and thus result in prosecution.

According to Krisztian Nyary, a publisher at Lira Konyv, the word 'depicts' is so general that it could include anything.

It could apply to Shakespeare's sonnets or Sappho's poems, because those depict homosexuality.

Hungary's government insists that the law - which includes sections that increase penalties for crimes of pedophilia and creates a searchable database of sex offenders - is necessary to protect children.

But critics, including high-ranking officials in the European Union, say it conflates homosexuality with paedophilia, and that it is only the latest step in a trend of policies and rhetoric from the Hungarian government that marginalize LGBT people.

Last week, a government office in the capital of Budapest announced it had fined Lira Konyv $830 for failing to clearly label a children's book that features families headed by same-sex parents.

The office said the bookstore broke consumer protection rules by not indicating that the book contained "content which deviates from the norm."

That fine, Nyary said, set a precedent for further potential sanctions against publishers and booksellers.

With the threat of further fines looming, all of Lira Konyv's roughly 90 bookstores will now carry the notice warning customers: "This store sells books with non-traditional content."

Noemi Kiss, the author of several novels that address contemporary social problems and feature some characters that do not conform to heterosexual norms or gender identities, said she supports parts of the law which cracks down on paedophilia and protects children from pornographic content.

But she called the categorization of literature based on whether it contains homosexual themes "absurd" and "a limitation of freedom of opinion and expression."

Another provision of the new law forbids the depiction to minors of "sexuality for its own sake" - something Nyary said could potentially affect the majority of titles sold by the Lira Konyv bookstore chain.

According to him three-quarters of world literature based on this definition and could be reported if someone wants to.

Hungary's government did not respond to a request for comment.

Mark Mezei, a novelist in Budapest who has published a book depicting a lesbian relationship, says that while he believes established authors will not practice self-censorship over the new law, it could serve to "knock the pen out of the hands" of young people, stunting a new generation of writers.

Mezei insisted authors must "create and live autonomously," and said that he is likely to simply ignore the law while believing that the really good works will be on the shelves of libraries when the current government will be only a "footnote in the pages of history books".