BUDAPEST, Hungary — A mass protest in Hungary on Sunday drew about 10,000 people in what some demonstrators called an act of resistance against recent actions by the right-wing populist government to restrict basic rights and crack down on independent media.

The protest came days after a lawmaker from the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán submitted a bill that would allow the government to monitor, restrict, penalize and potentially ban media outlets and nongovernmental organizations it deems a threat to the country’s sovereignty.

The bill, which has been compared to Russia’s “foreign agent” law, is expected to pass in the parliament, where the ruling Fidesz party holds a two-thirds majority.

Protesters Sunday filled the square beside Hungary’s parliament in central Budapest to denounce the bill, which would allow the government to blacklist organizations that receive any amount of financial support from outside Hungary and subject them to intrusive monitoring, searches, major fines and possible bans on their activities.

— The Associated Press