MtM on Tour: 80 Angry Journalists
A gripping behind-the-scenes account of how Hungary’s leading independent news site, Index.hu, is gradually being brought under the control of Viktor Orbán’s autocracy. The pressure keeps mounting until the entire editorial staff of eighty journalists resigns. Will they succeed in building a new platform from scratch?
War correspondent András Földes runs through a narrow hallway with his camera. But instead of a war zone, he is entering the newsroom of Hungary’s largest independent news website, Index.hu: his workplace. He isn’t there to report on an armed conflict. He is there to bear witness to a different kind of war: a battle between the free press and an autocratic government. For twenty years, the news site was András’s life. Now Index.hu is on the verge of being taken over by Orbán’s autocratic government.
“Sometimes I think it wasn’t the freedom in our reporting that bothered those in power,” says András, “but the fact that we were so close-knit.” That unity becomes apparent when—in an unprecedented move—eighty journalists resign, leaving the newsroom empty. The journalists refuse to throw in the towel and decide to launch a new online newspaper: Telex.hu. They are led by the courageous and inspiring Vera Munk, who becomes editor-in-chief. “Our task now is to create an incredibly good newspaper—one that’s impossible to ignore,” says Vera. But they face enormous challenges: they must build a new platform from scratch, find sources of funding, and navigate an increasingly hostile environment.
