Hungary: “The end of an era” that came with mass resignations at Index may well be the tipping point of decline in press freedom

July 28, 2020, Budapest, Hungary -- More than 70 editorial staff members walked out of the Index headquarters on Friday, July 24 in mass resignation to protest the arbitrary dismissal of their editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull. The decision was taken by the president of the board of Index.hu, László Bodolai.

Index had expressed concern about their independence a few months ago when Miklos Vaszily, a pro-Orban businessman, bought 50% of shares of Index's advertising and revenue. It was then that the team under Szabolcs moved their status as “in danger” from “independent” in their “press freedom barometer”.

The mass resignation, led by three senior editors of Index, was called “the end of an era”. The public statement read: 

“For years, we've been saying that there are two conditions for the independent operation of Index: that there be no external influence on the content we publish or the structure and composition of our staff. Firing Szabolcs Dull has violated our second condition. His dismissal is a clear interference in the composition of our staff,  and we cannot regard it any other way but as an overt attempt to apply pressure on Index.hu.”

Editorial board’s decision of mass resignation is not only a show of solidarity with their editor-in-chief but also a sign of integrity, refusing to remain silent to deterioration of freedom of the press in the country.

We talked to deputy editor in chief Veronika Munk and politics editor Miklósi Gábor who drew a picture on the events that led to the dismissal of Dull, despite the management promising they would not upon the bought of shares.

In March, Miklós Vaszily (a businessman known for implementing the takeover and transformation of several media outlets to function as propaganda mouthpieces of the government) became one of the owners of the holding company that sells all advertisements on Index and is also the IT service provider. Controlling the money flow, Index is greatly exposed to this company. 

In June, experts hired by Indamedia presented a plan to the executive board of Index about reorganizing the editorial office and the front page, in order to reduce costs to cope with diminishing ad revenues attributed to the pandemic. 

The plan was to outsource certain sections of the editorial office into new business units. This, however, would have cost money, without reducing costs in any obvious way or timeframe. On the other hand, this concept would have divided the editorial staff and potentially loosened up editorial standards. The board instructed the CEO to incorporate the concept into a cost reduction plan. The CEO disagreed with the plan and resigned. The board's resolution was leaked to the press, and as a response, Index set their independence barometer to “in danger”, a tool they implemented 3 years ago to protect Index’s editorial independence. Mr. Bodolai started to pressure Mr. Dull into resetting the barometer to "free", by threatening to fire members of the editorial staff. Dull resisted and got fired, eventually.

The Orban government and its predecessors have been playing a rather “unique” way in silencing the media in Hungary for nearly a decade. Instead of blatantly shutting down opponent news outlets, like we see in much of Eastern Europe, dissolving the critical nature of independent media through economic pressure has been their tactic.

Viktoria Serdült, a journalist for HVG.hu, one of the remaining independent news outlets explained this to the CFWIJ during an interview: “Independent journalism in Hungary in the last decade has been a job that comes with much unpredictability. The newsrooms of public service radio, TV and the state news agency MTI long ago gave up any pretence of impartiality. However, privately owned businesses too have been pushed to succumb to government’s wishes through ownership of shares, or in Index’s case taking over the main revenue source, advertisement of newspapers. It is impossible to say when your news outlet will lose financial independence, which comes with losing its independence in reporting. That is why we see many young journalists burnt out not only because of the hard work that they do but due to unpredictability towards the future. I know journalists who gave up on reporting and became gardeners, I have colleagues who express they would rather move to the UK and wait tables. This pressure on the media in a way has not only affected the industry alone but also the aspirations of the public. That is why the Orban government didn’t dare shut down Index via legal pressure, because that would mean a huge decline in their popularity, so they went about it rather sneakily.”

Index indeed has popularity around the country, and their readership does not only consist of opponents but there are even pro-government voices that say when they wake up the first thing they do is checking index.hu. This is due to consistent quality journalism that Index provides, says Viktoria. With their culture and lifestyle pieces and refreshing op-eds, Index seems to be everything the public would want from the mainstream media.

That is why around 7000 people took to the streets of Budapest on Friday to protest the conditions in which Index staff had to resign. In a Facebook event for the protest, organizers wrote, "The Index editorial board made clear what's happening: interference in their work, threats, blackmail, coercion, and exertion of pressure...We can't allow this!"

In an industry fueled with competition and sometimes even rivalry, journalists from other news outlets stood with the Index team. Insight Hungary, in an article published on July 14, just 10 days before the mass resignation called the buy of shares of Index by a pro-government businessman as “Paradise Lost”. 

Gabor however in our interview gave a hopeful note: “The fall of Index as a reliable, independent news site, which had the biggest audience, is a major loss. But there are other outlets that perform well and may be able to fill the void left by Index.”

Although the show of solidarity and Friday’s protests gave a glimpse of hope, realistically speaking Viktoria says “this is just the tipping point”. So “the end of an era”, the term coined by the resigned journalists at Index may very well be true. The newspaper was established in the late 1990s where Hungary was entering a period of hopeful optimism following a decade of uncertainty and economic decay. For many, Index was symbolic of the highest hopes for what the new decade meant in this burgeoning era. 

The last nail on the coffin of press freedom seems to be the demise of Index, however, the resigned staff made it clear that they will launch a new platform to keep doing their journalism through crowd-funding. Independent news outlets in the last couple of years turned to crowdfund or paywall articles in order to be able to sustain them without economic pressure.

“Protests and the signs of solidarity are great, but to me the best way to fight back right now is to keep doing what we do. Because realistically, this latest incident showed us that the government will not stop at any cost as they are determined to control all the media. We can’t pinpoint who will be the next but it seems the government has set its sights on another independent website, 24.hu.” said Viktoria during our interview.

24.hu’s owner Zoltan Varga said in an interview with Politico that the government controlled media has launched a campaign to discredit his news outlet, with claims of tax evasion and exploitation of its employees.  

Some of the resigned staff from Index will keep reporting during their law mandated notice period as they plan for their next step (source: https://www.facebook.com/tavozoindexesek), on the other hand, Gabor informed us that the response of Boladai to the mass resignation was to let go of 23 people whom he calls “the troublemakers” during the notice period and works on convincing the rest of the team to withdraw their resignation. 

So we might not see the shift in the tone of Index’s reporting immediately, but at the end of the day when the next elections come Index.hu will already be lost to the government pressure, becoming yet another propaganda outlet. 

“The mass resignation is not only about protecting freedom of the press but about showing courage in the face of oppression.” Veronika Munk told us, “It is not only the freedom of the press that really matters here on a larger scale. What makes our move special, is that almost the entire staff quit in unison, taking a huge financial risk. This sent a very strong message, that you can say no to Orbán's regime, you can say no to making small compromises that add up to major breaches of your own standards, that you can and should say no at the first bad sign, and lot let yourself corrupted by small steps of adaptation.”

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is utterly appalled by the pressure on independent media in Hungary, yet remains hopeful that acts of solidarity and integrity will prevail. We stand with journalists who stood up for the public’s right to information and democracy.