{"id":11895,"date":"2025-03-15T11:11:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T10:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/?p=11895"},"modified":"2025-03-15T11:38:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T10:38:27","slug":"a-kozonsegunktol-kapjuk-minden-eronket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/a-kozonsegunktol-kapjuk-minden-eronket\/","title":{"rendered":"Our only source of power is our audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Let me start with the bad news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Yes, you should brace yourself for the worst. History has taught us that even centuries-old institutions can crumble under the weight of political forces that are ruthless and have sufficient resources to carry out their plans. Just ask the churches, universities, businesses, and civil society organizations how well they did under communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe after World War II.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hungary, where I run the investigative reporting nonprofit Direkt36, is still a much freer place now than it was during those dark times. But if the 14-year (and still counting) rule of Viktor Orb\u00e1n can provide any guidance on what is waiting for independent journalsts under Donald Trump\u2019s second term, you can expect increasingly aggressive propaganda campaigns against you, attacks on your business operations, and maybe even some spying on you and your sources.<\/div>\n
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So, arm yourselves with the best lawyers who can protect you against politically motivated legal attacks and can challenge unjust regulations. Increase your physical and digital security. Maybe even team up with your competitors to make a case to the people that independent, fact-based journalism is a public service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You should also realize that what you are facing now is not a uniquely American problem. Many of your colleagues around the world have been struggling with these challenges for years. Reach out to them and ask them about their experience. Maybe they have useful advice on what to do and what not to do, the latter of which can be equally important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This brings us to the good news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In Hungary we have gone through all the challenges I mentioned (propaganda, business pressures, surveillance), and we\u2019re still alive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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My colleagues and I launched Direkt36 nearly 10 years ago, after we had to leave our previous workplace, one of Hungary\u2019s most popular digital news sites, when it came under pressure from the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The first few years were especially hard, when we had to figure out the business side of our operations and establish ourselves as a new outlet. But now we have an organization that has been growing steadily, attracting young talent, and producing stories that reach hundreds of thousands (a big number in Hungary) and often put the government on the defensive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Whatever resilience we have is due mainly to two reasons. Since advertisers and investors often have political agendas, we rely on a membership program as our main source of revenue. And we are an active member of the growing international investigative journalism community to which we can always turn for help, whether it is about pursuing a cross-border story or asking for technological or legal assistance.<\/p>\n

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We are not alone. When another popular news site, Index, was taken over by pro-government forces four years ago, its whole staff resigned and set up another outlet, Telex, which has quickly become one of the most influential news sources in the country (full disclosure: they are our publishing partners).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Another example is Partiz\u00e1n, an outlet that started as a YouTube channel just a few years ago. Now, it practically functions as the public service broadcaster of Hungary, streaming a mix of serious political coverage and entertainment to audiences whose size rivals that of traditional television channels. (The official public broadcaster has been turned into a mouthpiece of the government.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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If there has been one lesson during this journey, it is that nothing really matters other than the audience. I know, you\u2019ve heard this a million times already. But we all should continue to think about it deeply. The model of college-educated journalists writing news for a college-educated audience clearly doesn\u2019t work as a business model (at least not for everyone). Neither does it fulfill the role journalism should play in a democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Our only source of power is our audience. The bigger and more diverse it is, the bigger our defense against any autocrat who wants to crush us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally part of Nieman Report’s “Dear America” series of essays that appeared November 26, 2024, we published the Hungarian version of our founder and editor Andr\u00e1s Peth\u0151’s article on Hungarian Press Freedom Day, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":11900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[522],"aioseo_notices":[],"fimg_url":["https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/lhmarc15-2.jpg",630,336,false],"authors":[{"term_id":522,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"andraspetho","display_name":"Andr\u00e1s Peth\u0151","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Petho-Andras.png","url2x":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Petho-Andras.png"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"","last_name":"Peth\u0151","first_name":"Andr\u00e1s","job_title":"","description":"[:hu]Andr\u00e1s a Direkt36 egyik alap\u00edt\u00f3ja, szerkeszt\u0151je \u00e9s \u00fcgyvezet\u0151 igazgat\u00f3ja. Kor\u00e1bban az Origo vezet\u0151 szerkeszt\u0151je volt, miel\u0151tt a port\u00e1l r\u00e9sze lett a korm\u00e1ny propagandag\u00e9pezet\u00e9nek. Andr\u00e1s dolgozott a BBC World Service-n\u00e9l Londonban \u00e9s a Washington Post t\u00e9nyfelt\u00e1r\u00f3 rovat\u00e1n\u00e1l is. R\u00e9szt vett sz\u00e1mos nagy nemzetk\u00f6zi nyomoz\u00f3 projektben, k\u00f6zt\u00fck a Panama-iratok feldolgoz\u00e1s\u00e1ban. K\u00e9tszer is elnyerte a legjobbnak \u00edt\u00e9lt t\u00e9nyfelt\u00e1r\u00f3 cikkek szerz\u0151inek j\u00e1r\u00f3 Soma-d\u00edjat. T\u00f6bbsz\u00f6r tanult \u00f6szt\u00f6nd\u00edjjal az Egyes\u00fclt \u00c1llamokban: 2008-ban a World Press Institute programj\u00e1ban, 2012-13-ban Humphrey-\u00f6szt\u00f6nd\u00edjask\u00e9nt a Marylandi Egyetemen, 2019-20-ban pedig Nieman-\u00f6szt\u00f6nd\u00edjask\u00e9nt a Harvard Egyetemen. Andr\u00e1s t\u00f6bb magyar egyetemen is tan\u00edtott \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00f3 kurzusokat.[:en]Andr\u00e1s is co-founder, editor and executive director of Direkt36. Previously, he was a senior editor for leading Hungarian news site Origo before it had been transformed into the government\u2019s propaganda outlet. He also worked for the BBC World Service in London and was a reporter at the investigative unit of The Washington Post. He has contributed to several international reporting projects, including The Panama Papers and the Pegasus Project. He plays a leading role in the production of Direkt36\u2019s documentaries, including The Dynasty, the award-winning film on the business empire of Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s family. He won the Soma Prize, the prestigious annual award dedicated to investigative journalism in Hungary, three times. He was a World Press Institute fellow in 2008, a Humphrey fellow at the University of Maryland in 2012\/13, and a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2019\/20. Andr\u00e1s has taught journalism courses at Hungarian universities.[:]"}],"tag_names":[],"category_names":[{"name":"Direkt36","slug":"direkt36"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895"}],"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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11895"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11908,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895\/revisions\/11908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11895"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}