Top Hungarian scientist appeals against overhaul of academic research

FILE PHOTO: People gather outside the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to protest against the government's legislation to overhaul the institution, in Budapest, Hungary, July 2, 2019. REUTERS/Tamas Kaszas/File Photo

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) has appealed to the Constitutional Court to strike down a reform that strips his august institution of its research network, part of government plans to tighten state control over academic life.

The new law, pushed through parliament in July by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government, strips the 200-year-old Academy of its network of research bodies and hands them over to a committee with a chairman appointed by Orban and half its members from the government.