Matter of context? On legal and political aspects of understanding totalitarian symbols

Abstract

The ban of symbols of totalitarian regimes is generally accepted in Europe although constituting a remarkable limitation on the freedom of expression. The legitimate reason for this is the historical situation in which the victims of totalitarian regimes still live with us, and the relatively young democracies want to prevent the return of toxic ideas and dictatorships. The peculiarity of symbolic speech is that the symbols used can have multiple meanings, so there may be a need to punish the use of these symbols only in case of promoting totalitarian systems and ideologies. This paper aims to analyse Central European (and the turns in Hungarian) legal regulation and cases arising from the prohibition; pointing out how consistently the courts take into account the context of the use of symbols and the historical background of symbols.