![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Szabo_02-800x533.jpg\")
Andr\u00e1s Szab\u00f3 in Direkt36’s office. Photo: Andr\u00e1s Peth\u0151<\/p><\/div>\n
Andr\u00e1s joined Direkt36 in 2016 as a reporter and has worked as an editor since last year. He has worked on several high-profile stories, including articles on the background of the Paks II project<\/a>, and Russian-Hungarian relations. He regularly covers the decision-making processes of the Orb\u00e1n government. He played a leading role in a three-part series of articles on the government’s failed economic policies.<\/a><\/p>\n Unable to attend Tuesday’s award ceremony due to illness, Direkt36 co-founder and editor Andr\u00e1s Peth\u0151 accepted the award on behalf of him.<\/p>\n “The award is in a very good place this year. Andr\u00e1s is a journalist driven by the need to produce beautifully crafted material\u201d, he said, adding that “an awful lot of meticulous work is required in this profession, and Andr\u00e1s is very good at it.”<\/p>\n The jury for the L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Szente Prize was led by L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Majt\u00e9nyi, President of the E\u00f6tv\u00f6s K\u00e1roly Institute. The members also included Szabolcs Dull, former editor-in-chief of Telex; R\u00f3bert Kotrocz\u00f3, RTL’s news director; Judit Moskovics, reporter of RTL’s program called H\u00e1zon k\u00edv\u00fcl; and R\u00e9ka Kinga Papp, a journalist who replaced Krisztina Hadas this year. At the beginning of the award ceremony, a minute’s silence was held in honor of Krisztina Hadas, who died in October 2024.<\/p>\n Because of Andr\u00e1s Szab\u00f3’s illness, his colleague Andr\u00e1s Peth\u0151 accepted the award on his behalf. Fot\u00f3: Szabolcs Panyi<\/p><\/div>\n In 2023, the jury awarded the L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Szente Prize to another Direkt36 journalist, Zsuzsanna Wirth. She received the award for her series of articles on hospital-acquired infections\u2014for which she and her colleague Kamilla Marton won one of the most prestigious Hungarian journalistic awards, the Transparency-Soma Prize in the same year. In 2022, Judit Moskovics, a reporter from RTL’s H\u00e1zon k\u00edv\u00fcl was awarded.<\/p>\n “Speaking out about the malpractices of the economy is one of the most important guarantees of democracy,” said jury president L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Majt\u00e9nyi, explaining why our colleague Andr\u00e1s Szab\u00f3 was awarded. At the beginning of his speech, he went all the way back in history to the 17th century, recalling that John Milton published his anti-censorship pamphlet in 1644. He added that freedom of the press was considered important by many, from Kant to Lajos Kossuth and Istv\u00e1n Sz\u00e9chenyi.<\/p>\n He continued by saying that Andr\u00e1s’s articles revealed the economic secrets of the Hungarian state. “The Hungarian economic policy is completely hidden from society by the government, and then a journalist and Direkt36 come along and expose these secrets. What we have read is pretty much the equivalent of a crime thriller or a psychological drama.”<\/p>\n “The work Direkt36 does is getting more valuable almost every day,” added Judit Moskovics, one of the jury members this year.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The prize was founded in memory of Hungarian journalist L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Szente, who died in 2022, by his former colleagues, Katalin Rangos and S\u00e1ndor Friderikusz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":10639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[761],"ppma_author":[771],"aioseo_notices":[],"fimg_url":["https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Szabo-Andras-2023-scaled.jpeg",1920,1281,false],"authors":[{"term_id":771,"user_id":36,"is_guest":0,"slug":"szopko-zita","display_name":"Zita Szopk\u00f3","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Szopko-Zita-n-scaled.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Szopko-Zita-n-scaled.jpeg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Szopk\u00f3","first_name":"Zita","job_title":"","description":"[:hu]Az ELTE kommunik\u00e1ci\u00f3- \u00e9s m\u00e9diatudom\u00e1ny mesterszak\u00e1n diplom\u00e1zott, majd t\u00f6bb mint h\u00e1rom \u00e9vig az \u00c1tl\u00e1tsz\u00f3n\u00e1l dolgozott \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00f3k\u00e9nt, a lap oktat\u00e1ssal foglalkoz\u00f3 rovat\u00e1nak szerkeszt\u0151jek\u00e9nt. 2019-ben r\u00e9szt vett a Transparency International Magyarorsz\u00e1g oknyomoz\u00f3 \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00f3i mentorprogramj\u00e1n. 2024 szeptember\u00e9ben csatlakozott a Direkt36 csapat\u00e1hoz. F\u0151k\u00e9nt szoci\u00e1lis t\u00e9m\u00e1kr\u00f3l, oktat\u00e1sr\u00f3l \u00e9s eg\u00e9szs\u00e9g\u00fcgyr\u0151l \u00edr.[:en]Zita graduated from E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University in Communication and Media Studies. She worked as a journalist and editor of the education-themed column at \u00c1tl\u00e1tsz\u00f3 for over three years. In 2019, she participated in Transparency International Hungary\u2019s investigative journalism mentorship programme. Since September 2024, she is a full-time journalist at Direkt36. She covers social issues, education and healthcare.[:]"}],"tag_names":[{"name":"Szente L\u00e1szl\u00f3-d\u00edj","slug":"szente-laszlo-dij"}],"category_names":[{"name":"Direkt36","slug":"direkt36"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11737,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733\/revisions\/11737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11733"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/dijatado_2025-800x600.jpeg\")