A Warning from a Hungarian Journalist: ‘Brace Yourself for the Worst’

The Kicker

András Pethő is a Hungarian journalist and a cofounder of Direkt36, an independent investigative news outlet.

Over the past decade, he’s watched as the government of Viktor Orbán—the world leader whom Steve Bannon once praised as “Trump before Trump”—has systematically eroded the freedom of the press in his country, in ways that may feel familiar to Americans watching corporate news leaders succumb to pressure from the administration.

Pethő joins The Kicker to explain why he believes journalists must accept the possibility that the worst is yet to come, while resisting the temptation to turn themselves into martyrs for democracy. “For a while, I thought, This would never happen here,” he said. “The biggest mistake that I made was the failure of imagination.”

Read More:

*András’s 2022 essay on the lessons he learned from experiencing Hungary’s crackdown on a free press

*Direkt36’s latest investigation: a documentary about the secret wealth of Orbán and his allies (with English subtitles)

*The New York Times on the fall of Origo, a once-audacious newsmagazine (2018)