MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT 21 C. Kúria leading decision no. 2014.12.376 36. The case concerned the refusal to allow a television channel to air a campaign film in which two monkeys spoke in the voices of two election candidates. The Kúria’s reasoning contained the following passage: “... Section 141 of the Electoral Procedure Act defines campaigning activity as the use of any campaign material during the campaign period and any other activity during the campaign period which aims at influencing or attempting to influence voters’ choices. According to section 140(c) of the Electoral Procedure Act, political advertisements are campaign materials, whose content is regulated in section 203(55) of the Act on media services and mass communication: ‘Political advertisement: any programme which appears or is published as an advertisement which promotes, or calls on others to support, a political party, political movement or the government, or which promotes their name, aims, activities, slogans, or symbols’. Thus, the Electoral Procedure Act, taken together with the provisions of the Mass Communication Act, does not prohibit negative campaigning. This means that it is permissible to enumerate, magnify and caricaturise the flaws in the opponent candidate’s capacities and programme while emphasising the campaigner’s own positive characteristics. This type of campaigning is nonetheless restricted by the basic principles of the Electoral Procedure Act According to section 2(1) of the Electoral Procedure Act, as relied on by the National Election Commission, the principle of the exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose should be taken into account in implementing the rules on the voting procedure. The requirement to exercise rights in accordance with their purpose is derived from the civil-law regulations enshrining the statutory prohibition of abuse of rights, and permeates the entire legal system. It means that entitled persons may avail themselves of legal institutions only in a manner which is in compliance with the purpose and content of those institutions. Only when exercised in that way do rights enjoy statutory protection and recognition corresponding to the true content – and not only the formal conditions – of the entitlement. The right to freedom of expression relied on by the complainant can be exercised in compliance with the right to human dignity enshrined in the Fundamental Law and in the Civil Code. It is from this perspective that this court should examine whether the complainant’s campaign film and its content violated the above-mentioned right. The Kúria shares the assessment of fundamental rights made by the National Election Commission. Portraying someone as an animal dehumanises the person concerned and is liable to violate human dignity. In Hungary, portraying someone as a monkey means connecting the negative characteristics of the animal with the candidate (negative campaigning) while presenting the campaigning candidate in his or her human form. In the Kúria’s view this is an impermissible type of negative campaigning, against which the person concerned cannot argue or provide evidence. Therefore, it infringes the principle of the bona fide exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose.” D. Position statement of the State Election Commission no. 9/2006 37. In a position statement (no. 9/2006) of 30 March 2006 on the removal of ballot papers from the polling station, the State Election