Hungary opens communist-era informer files

Hungary opened communist-era secret police files to the public on Wednesday, putting a searchable database online with names and records linked to an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 former informants.

Prime Minister Peter Magyar said the release fulfilled a promise from Hungary's 1990 democratic transition. The database went live at 10:00 am. Viktor Orban's name did not appear in the archives after rumours ahead of publication that he had been an informant.

A second batch of files, expected in February, is due to give more details on about 9,000 informants. Some personal information, including details on individuals' sexual orientation, will be redacted.

Hungary was under one-party communist rule from 1949 to 1989. State security archive estimates say the secret police employed about 150,000 informants over four decades, but surviving records cover only around a third of them. Many files are believed to have been destroyed during the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, hidden during the transition to democracy or taken to Moscow.

Efforts to open the archives had repeatedly stalled since 1990. A 2003 law allowed people who had been monitored to learn who had reported on them, but broader access remained restricted to approved researchers until the latest reform.

Historian Laszlo Eorsi of the 1956 Institute Foundation welcomed the release but cautioned against judging people solely because their names appear in the files. He said some recruits did not file reports and took risks by resisting the authorities.