László Bodolai, the CEO of Index.hu Zrt. has terminated the employment of Index's editor-in-chief, Szabolcs Dull. This decision is unacceptable to us.
For years, we've been saying that there are two conditions for the independent operation of Index: that there be no external influence on the content we publish or the structure and composition of our staff. Firing Szabolcs Dull violates our second condition.
Bodolai claims that the editor-in-chief had leaked a preparatory document and that "in the past couple of days," he was no longer able to control or stop internal processes.
What Bodolai is talking about is the leakage of the concept preparing the complete overhaul of Index, which subsequently led to us setting our independence barometer on amber alert — and that happened a month ago. Since then, the staff has consistently stood by the editor-in-chief. The only thing Szabolcs Dull could not control was how László Bodolai tried to force us to move the barometer back into the green zone by blackmailing us with austerity measures.
In fact, the reason for Dull's dismissal was that he made it clear that he will not yield to blackmail. His dismissal is a clear interference with the composition of our staff, and we cannot regard it any other way but as an overt attempt to apply pressure on Index.hu that will result in the decline of independent reporting.
Signatories, as of 5:52 PM on 22 July 2020:
Ajpek Orsi
Aradi László
Arnótszky Janka
Ághassi Attila
Bakró-Nagy Ferenc
Barakonyi Szabolcs
Biró Marianna
Bolcsó Dániel
Bozzay Balázs
Bozsó Ágnes
Bóna Samu
Bődey János Gergely
Brückner Gergely
Csatári Flóra Dóra
Cseke Balázs
Cser Ildikó
Csurgó Dénes
Demeter Ági
Dezső András
Egyed Anna
Előd Fruzsina
Fábián Tamás
Fehér János
Fillér Máté
Flachner Balázs
Ficsór Zsolt
Fodor Orsolya
Földes András
Földi Gábor
Haász János
Hanula Zsolt
Hernádi Levente
Hollik Ági
Hudák Hajnal
Huszti István
Iván András
Iván-Nagy Szilvia
Janecskó Kata
Jenei Miklós
Joób Sándor
Juhász Edina
Kaszás Tamás
Kárpáti Márton
Klág Dávid
Kolozsi Ádám
Kolozsvári Tímea
Koroknai Gergely
Kovács Bálint
Kovács Zoltán
Körömi Csongor
Lengyel-Szabó Péter
Lovas Gergő
Marczisovszky Márton
Marjanovic Mira
Martiskó Gábor
Matalin Dóra
Merényi Dániel
Mészáros Tamás
Miklósi Gábor
Mizsur András
Molnár Csaba
Molnár Réka
Munk Veronika
Nagy Attila Károly
Nagy Roland
Nehéz-Posony Ferenc
Német Tamás
Németh Péter
Nyilas Gergely
Pál Tamás
Pálúr Krisztina
Pándi Balázs
Pintér Luca
Pintér Mónika
Presinszky Judit
Rácz Attila
Rovó Attila
Rostás Bianka
Sajó Dávid
Simor Dániel
Somogyi Péter
Stöckert Gábor
Szabó Zoltán
Szalai Bálint
Szalma Baksi Ferenc
Szémann Tamás
Szilágyi Máté
Szilli Tamás
Tenczer Gábor
Thüringer Barbara
Tóth Balázs
Tóth Gergely
Tóth-Szenesi Attila
Török Balázs
Trencsényi Ádám
Varga Attila
Világi Máté
Záborszky Ede
Zsuppán András