BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s Constitutional Court says media may publish news images of police officers on duty without having to make them unrecognizable.
The ruling, published Wednesday, overturns a decision by a lower court, saying it limited the freedom of the press.
The Constitutional Court, the nation’s top one, set some restrictions on the publication of images on which police can be identified. For example, the pictures must be of public interest and cannot harm the human dignity of the officers by showing their suffering if they are injured in the line of duty.
Until now, published or broadcast images usually showed police with black strips over their eyes or pixelated faces.
In many cases, media had to compensate officers who sued or threatened to because they could be identified in published images.
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