On Friday, the three leading editors of Index, Attila Tóth-Szenesi, Veronika Munk, and János Haász have initiated the termination of their employment at Index, followed by more than 70 journalists working at the site.
The reason behind their decision was that László Bodolai, the president of the board of Index.hu Zrt. has fired former editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull and has refused to reinstate him in order to secure the independence and future of Index despite the request from the site's editorial staff. On Wednesday, members of the staff have unanimously taken a stand by the dismissed editor-in-chief, describing Bodolai's decision as unacceptable.
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 has violated our second condition. His dismissal is a clear interference in the composition of our staff, and we cannot regard it any other way but as an overt attempt to apply pressure on Index.hu.
Under these circumstances, following Bodolai's decision, the editorial board deemed that the conditions for independent operation are no longer in place and have initiated the termination of their employment.
The list of staff members who handed in their resignations because of the termination of editor-in-chief Szabolcs Dull (written in Hungarian name order):
Ajpek Orsolya
Arnótszky Janka Judit
Barakonyi Szabolcs
Biró Marianna
Bolcsó Dániel
Bozzay Balázs
Bozsó Ági
Bődey János
Brückner Gergely
Csatári Flóra
Cseke Balázs
Cser Ildikó
Csurgó Dénes
Demeter Ági
Dezső András
Egyed Anna
Előd Fruzsina
Fábián Tamás
Fehér János
Fillér Máté
Flachner Balázs
Földi Gábor
Hanula Zsolt
Hernádi Levente
Hollik Ági
Hudák Hajnal
Huszti István
Iván András
Janecskó Kata
Jenei Miklós
Joób Sándor
Kárpáti Márton
Klág Dávid
Kolozsi Ádám
Kolozsvári Tímea
Koroknai Gergely
Körömi Csongor
Kovács Dávid
Kovács Zoltán
Lengyel-Szabó Péter
Lovas Gergő
Marczisovszky Márton
Marjanovic Mira
Mészáros Tamás
Miklósi Gábor
Mizsur András
Molnár Réka
Nagy Attila Károly
Nagy Roland
Német Tamás
Németh Péter
Nyilas Gergely
Pál Tamás
Pándi Balázs
Pintér Luca
Presinszky Judit
Rácz Attila
Rostás Bianka
Rovó Attila
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 Gergely
Világi Máté
Záborszky Ede
Zsuppán András
and the team of our EU subsection Eurológus (Arató László, Folk György, Márton Balázs, Szűcs Ágnes, Zalán Eszter)