Zoltán Jandó, associate of G7.hu, and András Pethő and Szabolcs Panyi, investigative journalists of Direkt36, were awarded by the Transparency-Soma Prize 2024 with a total prize of HUF 1 million for their fact-finding work. The award-giving ceremony was held at the French Institute in Budapest on Friday evening, 10 January 2025. 

The year 2024 brought earth-shaking changes in Hungarian public life, as the Executive Director of Transparency International Hungary pointed out in his speech at the award-giving ceremony of the Transparency-Soma Prize 2024. According to József Péter Martin, the political avalanche triggered by the presidential pardon given by Katalin Novák, the ex-president of Hungary showed both the strength of a free press and civil society and the fragility of an autocratic regime that seemed stable and durable before.  

” In an age of disinformation and eroding trust, investigative journalism is a beacon of truth that we must preserve” the UK Ambassador said in his keynote speech. Paul Fox said: “its impact is profound. It holds power to account, exposes corruption and ensures the public has the knowledge it deserves.” 

According to Matthieu Berton, Director of the French Institute, journalists, while tirelessly fighting for respect for the facts and the truth, are forced to operate in a world where they face increasing threats. 

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This year, the jury has awarded the Transparency-Soma Award to the members of the economic portal G7.hu and the investigative online newspaper Direk36.hu. The three main criteria for judging the entries were: the quantity and quality of the investigative work, the relevance of the topic and the accessibility to the public. A total of 22 entries were received this year.   

Members of the jury are: 

• Zsolt Bogár, Lead Editor of Deutsche Welle in Hungary; 

• József Péter Martin, Executive Director of Transparency International (TI) Hungary; 

• András Stumpf, journalist, co-founder of Válaszonline.hu and 

• Ágnes Urbán, Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, Director of the Mérték Media Monitor. 

In addition to the winning articles, the jury also highlighted articles submitted to the competition that deserve special attention. In a series of articles, Balázs Kauffmann, journalist for 444.hu, revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, led by Péter Szijjártó, exactly knew that hacker groups linked to Russian intelligence services had hacked into the ministry’s IT system. The journalist confronted the Hungarian Foreign Minister, who was awarded the Russian Friendship Medal before, on camera, trying to explain away what had happened.  

Szabolcs Panyi of Direkt36 and Jean-Baptiste Chastand, a French journalist of Le Monde, were also shortlisted for their joint article, in which they revealed an “Indiana Jones” story. The journalists noticed a mysterious figure among the members of the Hungarian delegation to Chad, a central African state, who was often wearing a hat or mask and often hiding from the cameras behind a pillar or other object. Despite the man was trying to remain in incognito, was successfully identified by the journalists, and it turned out to be Gáspár Orbán, the son of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Since then, a two-thirds majority in Parliament has passed a law on the millitary mission to Chad, which will mobilise around 200 Hungarian soldiers, but true goals of the mission in Chad has still remained a mystery.  

In addition to the above, a joint fact-finding work of two, László Csaba Horváth and Miklós Gergely Nagy, journalists of 24.hu was also put on the shortlist. The two authors explored the late consequences of the golden visa business, which was launched in 2013 and abolished in the first half of 2017. The journalists meticulously traced the financial manoeuvres of two key Chinese players in the gold visa scheme, which was extremely unfavourable to Hungarian taxpayers, who used financial manoeuvres to transfer a sum of around HUF 3 billion to companies linked to Balázs Kertész, a lawyer associated with the propaganda minister Antal Rogán and the non-official government advisor Árpád Habony, and his immediate family members. These companies were later liquidated.  

Direkt36’s András Pethő and Szabolcs Panyi revealed the background of the political conflict within the NER, which also involved the secret services, which took place back in 2018. According to their investigative article, the Information Office (IH), which was still under the control of former Minister of the Office of the Prime Minister János Lázár, was working on so-called “white paper cases” in the jargon of the secret services, i.e. it was conducting undocumented procedures bypassing the official procedure. The IH’s staff monitored and eavesdropped on EU delegations arriving in Hungary, including staff of the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, who were investigating the so-called Elios case linked to Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz. However, following the 2018 parliamentary elections, which resulted in another two-thirds Fidesz majority, János Lázár, who had previously been extremely influential in the cabinet, was forced out of the government and the IH, which he oversaw as minister, was transferred to Péter Szijjártó, who heads the foreign affairs ministry. In 2018, the intelligence service was joined by a task force mainly drawn from the Ministry for Interior. According to the outlet, the order to investigate came directly from the most inner circles of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and the raid was not a general check, but in fact a very specific search for information linked to the NER’s economic holdings and to some members of the Orbán family. In addition, the team from the Ministry for Interior could also have been looking for documents related to István Tiborcz’s former company, Elios.  

Zoltán Jandó, journalist of G7.hu, presented an absurd story in a very detailed series of articles. A mysterious Hungarian entrepreneur tried to use fake Brazilian government bonds to recapitalise his companies, worth no less than HUF 13.5 billion in total. This is such a huge sum that the businessman would have beaten the wealthiest Hungarian oligarch and the nation’s gas fitter, Lőrinc Mészáros, by several times in a minute, and with a total of USD 38 billion, he could have been one of the 40 richest people in the world. Not only did all this went unnoticed by the lawyer who signed the official documents, but it also slipped through the commercial court, which handles such business cases, without a hitch. Following the publication of the article, the National Tax and Customs Office initiated proceedings and the Commercial Court also conducted a legal supervisory procedure, which resulted in the annulment of the documents relating to the capital increase. Although the financial manoeuvre was prevented in this particular case, the relevant legislation still allows for similar attempts, and the Hungarian government has – in a peculiar way – further relaxed the related rules and controls from 1 January 2025.  

At the award ceremony, the winners of this year’s Transparency-Soma Award received their prizes and a cash award of HUF 1 million. Following the presentation of the certificates, the winners of the Transparency-Soma Award 2023, Zsuzsanna Wirth and Kamilla Marton, interviewed the winners, Zoltán Jandó, András Pethő and Szabolcs Panyi about the creation and afterlife of their award-winning articles. 

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About the Transparency-Soma Award   

For the 22nd time, Hungary’s most prestigious investigative journalism prize, founded in 2001 by friends of the late investigative journalist József Gőbölyös (Soma), was awarded in honour of his memory. The prize, now called Transparency-Soma Award, is awarded by Transparency International Hungary since 2016. The award is given away by a jury of four, Zsolt Bogár, Lead Editor of Deutsche Welle in Hungary; Péter József Martin, Managing Director of Transparency International Hungary; András Stumpf, journalist and co-founder of Válaszonline.hu and Ágnes Urbán, Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest and Director of the Mérték Media Monitor.  

The 2024 Transparency-Soma Award was supported by the British Embassy in Budapest.