CPJ recognises Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi, who exposed Orbán government's Russian ties

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced that it will honor Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi at the International Press Freedom Awards ceremony to be held in New York on November 19. Szabolcs Panyi currently writes for VSquare and he previously worked for the Hungarian investigative journalism center Direkt36. Earlier this year, he exposed Péter Szijjártó’s close ties to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. During the election campaign, Panyi became a target of the Orbán government's propaganda and was subsequently targeted by the authorities.

“This year’s awardees exemplify the determination and courage of journalists worldwide,” they write. “They have endured targeting, imprisonment, exile, and surveillance for simply reporting the news. It is an honor to recognize their commitment to documenting the truth”, Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s executive director said, according to the organization’s statement.

About Szabolcs Panyi, CPJ writes the following: “Szabolcs Panyi is one of Europe’s leading investigative journalists. His reporting exposing the workings of the former Orbán regime has not only had a huge impact at home in Hungary, but also influenced wider European policy debate.” They point out that as a result of his access to sources from national security experts to the highest ranks of government and his reporting on Russian influence operations, Hungarian authorities even brought espionage charges against him. “Panyi’s reporting on national security, foreign influence, corruption, and political power dynamics has been instrumental in exposing Russian influence networks in Hungary and shaping public debate in the run-up to the election that ultimately led to the Orbán government’s defeat.”

Szabolcs Panyi responded to the news on his Facebook page: “I dedicate this award to those courageous colleagues, sources, and readers who have kept independent journalism alive in Hungary—and who remind us day after day that exposing abuses of power is always worth the risk. It speaks volumes about the situation we had in Hungary for the past sixteen years that this is the first time that a journalist from an EU member state has received this award since it was first presented in 1991. The Orbán regime, however, is over, but we are still here.”

In addition to Panyi, the CPJ is honoring a Colombian, an Eritrean, a Salvadoran, a Lebanese, and sixteen Myanmarese journalists this year. The U.S.-based organization has previously spoken out on several occasions in response to the abuses suffered by Telex journalists, such as when the mayor of Csákberény, László Vécsei used physical force to push two of our female colleagues out of a press conference attended by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén, or when police in Fót detained our colleagues while they were waiting for Viktor Orbán so they could ask him some questions.