The editor in chief of Index is stepping down

Zoltán Fekete-Szalóky, the current editor in chief, will leave his position in mid May after leading Index for the past six years according to a statement published on the site’s front page.

From May 15, the current deputy editor in chief, Norbert Gedei, who previously came from Blikk, will take over the role. This was announced at an internal staff meeting on Monday.

Zoltán Fekete-Szalóky played a decisive role in the editorial operations and professional development of Index for more than six years. Under his leadership, the newsroom consistently maintained its market leading position, implemented important content developments, and achieved outstanding readership results

the departing editor in chief’s work was praised.

However, the reason for his departure was not disclosed.

They admitted that the coverage of the “Tisza tax package” was based on a false document

On Sunday, Index published a correction regarding its article from last autumn about an alleged “Tisza tax package,” which was later used as a basis for a Fidesz campaign. The outlet acknowledged that it had falsely claimed to have obtained a several-hundred-page economic plan of the Tisza Party. According to the correction, the published document was not the party’s economic program, and therefore no conclusions could be drawn from it about the party’s official tax policy plans or any new levy package.

The Tisza Party had already stated at the time of publication that the documents were not real and had nothing to do with its planned measures. Index originally claimed that the document projected a radical left wing economic policy shift, broad tax and contribution increases, and at least 3,700 billion forints in additional annual revenue.

A court also ruled that the Tisza Party had no connection to the 600 page tax increase document published by Index and ordered the outlet to issue a correction over the article based on the fake document.

Péter Magyar also reacted to the correction. According to the president of the Tisza Party, Index “lied throughout the election campaign” and conducted a “Russian style disinformation campaign” with the fake tax package. The aspiring prime minister criticized the correction for appearing only in small print at the bottom of the page, while the original claims were featured on the front page for days. In his view, a proper correction should also appear prominently on the front page for several days.

In recent years, Index has increasingly drawn attention as a starting point for pro-government campaign materials, although it has retained its market-leading position.

The newsroom was dismantled six years ago

In March 2020, concerns arose when Miklós Vaszily, chairman of TV2, acquired a 50% stake in the Indamedia Group, which was connected to Index through several intermediaries, including advertising sales. Index was financially dependent on Indamedia, as the company managed the portal’s advertising revenues.

In June, a restructuring plan was presented to Index’s management that could have broken up the newsroom. Shortly after, then editor in chief Szabolcs Dull changed the outlet’s “independence barometer,” and on July 22, László Bodolai, chairman of the board of Index.hu Zrt., dismissed him. The newsroom called this unacceptable, arguing that two key conditions of independent operation were the absence of external interference in both content and editorial composition.

On July 24, 2020, the paper’s leaders and more than eighty staff members initiated their resignations. The day before, members of the newsroom had asked Bodolai to reinstate the editor in chief, but received a negative response.

In November 2020, the Indamedia Group partly owned by Miklós Vaszily bought back the shares of Index.hu Zrt., thereby gaining direct control over the portal. Following these events, Fekete-Szalóky was appointed acting editor in chief of Index in December 2020.