The spyware scandal in Hungary is a crisis for Europe

“Although the Hungarian figures represent a small part of the total, they stand out because Hungary is a member of the European Union, where privacy is supposed to be a fundamental right and a fundamental societal value, and where safeguards for journalists, opposition politicians and lawyers are theoretically powerful.” But in Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe, some of these guarantees are being rolled back — and in Budapest, that rollback has been accompanied by the use of an extraordinarily powerful spy tool.”