77
In connection with my 2016 report on the Zita Home for Children with Special Needs, the head of the
General Directorate of Social Affairs and Child Protection requested one of the popular broadcasting
channels to rectify the information reported by the channel in January 2017. The Director-General
complained that one of the staff members of my Office referred to a circumstance not mentioned in
my report. In connection with this case, I launched an internal investigation and established that not my
colleague’s statement but the program’s narration was faulty. The broadcasting channel issued a
statement: “In our program on January 18, 2017, entitled “Tortured by their peers in the Home for Children,”
we mistakenly claimed that one of the children had forced his peers to engage in same-sex prostitution
in the Zita Children’s Home in Kaposvár. According to the supervisory authority, the General
Directorate of Social Affairs and Child Protection, the report on the homepage of the Office of the
Commissioner for Fundamental Rights does not contain conclusion to that effect.”
The press mentioned the report on the Cseppkő Children’s Home in connection with other
fundamental-rights-related improprieties concerning children, receiving wide publicity. Another source
gave a comprehensive analysis of the NPM’s investigations focusing on the protection of children,
including the issue of isolation. According to another press report, the institution managed to fill all
psychologist posts.
The press report on my follow-up visit to the Juvenile Penitentiary Institution in Tököl described the
positive changes in the institution. As a result of the NPM’s report, “the cells in the cell block have
been renovated, toilet bowls, wash basins, light fittings, doors, and windows replaced, and benches
installed. The transfer cell has also been renovated, and cameras have been installed in the cells for
‘personal and material security considerations.’ The gym has also been completed. In order to reduce
the cell block’s over-crowdedness, some walls have been chiseled off, thus ensuring the statutory
minimum living space. The transfer cells have not been made larger; however, they keep only so many
detainees in those cells who can comfortably sit. To this end, benches have been installed as well.”225
My colleagues participated in two project-type media events. The longer, a prime time TV-report,226
dealt with the NPM’s everyday operation. The broadcasting crew filmed as my colleagues, upon
completing their visit, left the premises of the Psychiatric Ward of the Balassa János Hospital of Tolna
County. In the other, an episode of a documentary series227 with international participants, one of my
colleagues gave an expert opinion on the genealogy of torture.
13.2. Dissemination
Purposeful dissemination is an obligation of the NPM. Educating the professionals of the future is an
efficient means of disseminating knowledge. The staff members of the Department perform
educational tasks in domestic higher education institutions, deliver lectures, and publish in professional
periodicals.
Courses taught by the Department’s staff members in higher education institutions
Subject
Chapters from the results of criminology
Penology and social sciences research in prison
Prison sociology
Criminal psychology
Macro-level, multidisciplinary approach to social issues I The
violence
Name of the institution
Graduate School of Law Enforcement NUPS
Graduate School of Law Enforcement NUPS
Master course in criminology, Faculty of Law and Political
Sciences, ELTE
Master course in criminology, Faculty of Law and Political
Sciences, ELTE
Institute of Mental Health, Faculty of Health and Public
Services, Semmelweis University
FARKAS Melinda (2017): Felszámolják az embertelen állapotokat a börtönökben: Használt az ombudsmani felszólítás: nagyobb
zárkák, új ablakok és több szakember a fiatalkorúak intézetében, Magyar Nemzet. https://mno.hu/.../felszamoljak-az-embertelenallapotokat-a-bortonokben-1388628 [downloaded on March 27, 2018]
226 HírTV: Riasztás, June 6, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2vI7yHkMOU [downloaded on March 27, 2018]
227 Spectrum TV: Violent Mankind, Season 1, Episode 3
225
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