Team
Direkt36 is a non-profit investigative journalism center in Hungary with the mission to expose wrongdoings and abuse of power through fair but tough reporting, a kind of journalism that is vital for any democracy.
We are a unique newsroom. We don’t cover the daily news, but we devote all our resources to investigating the sensitive and important stories that those on power want to hide from the people. Over the past years, this is how we have uncovered the details of the Orbán government’s Russian connections, the Pegasus surveillance and the worsening situation of hospital infections, among others. We actively participate in the work of a growing international investigative journalism community and we publish all of our stories – which often have international implications – also in English.
Direkt36 is operated by a non-profit company founded in 2014 by three journalists, András Pethő, Gergő Sáling and Balázs Weyer.
We are independent of all political and economic interest groups, and our professional decisions are free from any outside influence. Our most important source of income is our audience: thousands of people have joined our circle of supporters over the course of our operations. If you care about our mission, support us and get an insight into this exciting work. You can read more about our principles here.
In addition to our audience, we have received and continue to receive support from international professional organisations. Read more about our supporters here.
Staff
Patrik Galavits – journalist
Patrik graduated in Public and International Administration from the National University of Public Service. He started out as a private sector employee at multinational corporations before he ventured into journalism. He became a reporter and radio show host at Klubrádió, then he produced a podcast and wrote articles at Azonnali.hu. Most recently he worked at Forbes Hungary. In 2019, he won a grant at WDR, a public broadcaster based in Germany. In 2022, he took part in an International Visitor Leadership Program for journalists, organized by the United States Department of State. He has been nominated for the Quality Journalism Award multiple times. His investigative article series involving abuses and sexual harassment at the Hungarian Dance Academy earned him a nomination for the Transparency Soma Award in 2021.
Kamilla Marton – journalist
Kamilla graduated from the Budapest Metropolitan University in Communication and Media Science. She started her career at Direkt36 as a junior journalist. She is mainly interested in the cultural background of underground subcultures and social inequalities. In 2023, she won the Transparency-Soma award together with Zsuzsanna Wirth for her series of articles exposing the hidden situation of hospital-acquired infections. She loves extreme sports.
Szabolcs Panyi – journalist
Szabolcs graduated from Eötvös Loránd University where he studied Hungarian language and literature. Between 2013 and 2018, he was an editor and political reporter at Index.hu. At Arizona State University, he studied investigative journalism on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2017-2018. In the fall of 2018, he joined Direkt36, where he mainly works on stories related to national security and foreign policy. Meanwhile, he helped launch VSquare.org, a Warsaw-based cross-border investigative journalism initiative for the Visegrád region, where he is currently leading the Central Eastern European investigations. He received the Quality Journalism Award and the Transparency-Soma Award four times each, and he was also shortlisted for the European Press Prize in 2018 and 2021.
András Pethő – director, founder, editor
András is a 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’s 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. He twice won the Soma Prize, the prestigious annual award dedicated to investigative journalism in Hungary. 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. András has taught journalism courses at Hungarian universities.
András Szabó – journalist, editor
András worked eight years as a journalist at Origo, a then prestigious online news site, but also spent several years at Index and vs.hu news outlets. At Direkt36 he covers Russian-Hungarian relations, activities of business circles close to Fidesz, and political decision making processes of the Orbán government. In 2011 he received the Gőbölyös Soma Award dedicated to investigative journalism in Hungary, and in 2010 he won the Quality Journalism Award, both for a series of articles that focused on a corruption case connected to the former Socialist-led government.
Dániel Szőke – journalist
Graduated from Eötvös Loránd University at 2013 as a librarian scientist. As a freelancer he worked with 444.hu news-site for several years, and in 2020 attended Transparency International’s mentor program for investigative journalists. In January 2021 he started to work as an intern, and since September 2021 he is a full-time journalist of Direkt36.
Zsuzsanna Wirth – journalist, editor
Zsuzsanna started her journalistic carreer at Origo, where she spent ten years at the news desk, covering and investigating various political and social issues as well as corruption and organized crime. She worked for the Hungarian editions of Forbes and Marie Claire. She has been workign at Direkt36 as a journalist since 2016, and as an editor since 2022. In 2022, she studied OSINT techniques as an OCCRP Research Fellow. She was awarded the Prize for Quality Journalism three times. In 2023, she received the László Szente-Prize, and together with Kamilla Marton she also won the Transparency-Soma award for her series of articles exposing the hidden situation of hospital-acquired infections. She teaches journalism at ELTE’s media department.
Péter Nádori – COO
The first editor-in-chief of Origo, Péter worked with Direkt36 founders András Pethő and Gergő Sáling at the news portal. His other positions and activities included a long stint as deputy CEO of Lapcom (a print/online publishing conglomerate), academic publications, and teaching at several universities. In 2020-21 he assisted the team leaving Index to launch the crowdfunded news portal, Telex. He was one of the founders (and, later, chairperson) of the Association of Hungarian Content Providers.
Borbála Pál – nonprofit manager
Bori studied social sciences at the Eötvös Loránd University and the Central European University in Budapest. Afterwards, she worked for Centropa, an international educational NGO aiming to preserve Jewish memory. She enjoys working and volunteering for civil organizations, and is passionate about non-formal education and social inclusion.
