Origo (website)

Origo (previously stylised as [origo]) is a major Hungarian language news website founded in 1998 by telecommunications company MATÁV. In 2018, Origo was the third most visited Hungarian website.[1] Since 2015, Origo has been regularly criticised for its uncritical support of the Fidesz political party[2] and regularly spreading fake news.[3][4][5][6] Some critics describe the website as "state-run propaganda".[7][8][9]

Origo
Type of site
Internet entertainment and news
Available inHungarian
OwnerNew Wave Media
URLorigo.hu
CommercialYes
Launched1 December 1998
OCLC number806226699

History

1998-2001: Foundation and early days

Four former Magyar Narancs employees, Péter Nádori, Ferenc Pohly, György Simó and Balázs Weyer[10] decided to start an online news website. After contacting other media publishers such as Népszabadság[11], they were eventually given funds for the website by Magyar Telekom (then called MATÁV) in order to popularise internet subscriptions in Hungary. Preparations for the website began in May 1997, and it was eventually launched a year later, in December 1998.[10] Although Origo only had one real competitor at the time, Index.hu (then called Internetto), its initial readership was underwhelming due to structural issues with the website.[12] However, this soon changed as MATÁV's resources weren't as limited as Internetto's[12], and they also owned the biggest Hungarian search engine at the time, the Altavista-based AltaVizsla.[13] They also purchased email provider freemail.hu, further boosting their popularity as Origo were now able to offer a complete news + search engine + email package, something Index were unable to do.[14] In 2000, Nádori was replaced by Weyer as Origo's editor-in-chief.[15]

Origo's financial strength meant that they were able to cover the September 11 attacks without any server problems, while Index was constantly struggling with outages. This cemented Origo's position as the most popular news site in Hungary for years to come.[16]

In 2006, Origo's owners, Magyar Telekom (then called T-Online), announced that they were purchasing iWiW, Hungary's largest social media site at the time.[17] This allowed for some level of integration between Origo and iWiW, especially after they transferred iWiW over to Origo.[18] They also purchased blogging service Blogter.hu, a competitor to Index's blog.hu.[19]

In 2009, Origo's frontpage was redesigned.[20]

2010-2015: Pressured by the government

In 2010, former Index employee Miklós Vaszily became Origo's new CEO.[21] Vaszily was tasked with making the company profitable.[22] Several other former Index employees also joined the website around this time. In 2011, editor-in-chief Balázs Weyer left the company[23], and he was eventually replaced by Index's Albert Gazda.[24] Under his tenure, Origo went through another design change[25] with the help of Péter Uj, Index's co-founder and former editor-in-chief.[26] Gazda was replaced by Gergő Sáling[27] in 2013 after he resigned.[25] Gazda later claimed that he resigned after political figures had started pressuring Origo around that time.[22] According to some, around this time, officials from the Hungarian government initiated meetings with Magyar Telekom executives in order to pressure the company to take a more pro-government stance.[2][28]

Sáling did not last long at the company as he was fired in June 2014. Although Origo officially cited the "adapting to the changing ways of media consumption" as the reason of his firing[29], many were sceptical of this reasoning, citing the lawsuit of Sáling's deputy, András Pethő against Fidesz official János Lázár as the cause of his departure.[30][31][2] This was corroborated by accounts from Pethő[30] as well as Sáling's predecessor, Albert Gazda.[22] Sáling's firing also lead to the departure of many other journalists and editors of Origo, including everyone working for the "Origo News" section of the website.[32] The new editor-in-chief after Sáling's departure was Ákos Pálmai.[29]

2015-now: New Wave Media

In 2015, Magyar Telekom announced that they were selling Origo after their parent company, Deutsche Telekom had started getting rid of its media interests. The eventual buyers were New Wave Media, who also owned vs.hu at the time.[33] After the transaction, Pálmay was replaced by Bence György as the website's editor-in-chief[34] who stayed in his position until September 2017[35] when he was replaced by László Gábor.[36]

In 2017, it was announced that New Wave Media was purchased by Ádám Matolcsy, the son of György Matolcsy who is the governor of the Hungarian National Bank and a Fidesz member.[37] Although Matolcsy had denied that Origo would be used for the purposes of propaganda[38], the website began uncritically supporting Viktor Orbán's anti-immigration campaign[39], as well as regularly publishing fake news targeted against opposition politicians[40][41][42], which also resulted in Origo losing several lawsuits.[43][44][45]

gollark: Just buy really long Ethernet cables, run them everywhere on the floors, and constantly trip over them.
gollark: Don't do wireless, kids.
gollark: Yes, since it uses 60GHz instead of 2.4 or 5.
gollark: It's annoying that despite having a giant radio spectrum to work with, WiFi is limited to some random smallish frequency bands because the government handles licensing weirdly.
gollark: It's 2.4GHz you potato.

References
  1. Szuhi, Attila (2018-10-17). "A legnézettebb hazai weboldalak rangsora 2018". ite.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  2. Kingsley, Patrick; Novak, Benjamin (2018-11-25). "The Website That Shows How a Free Press Can Die". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  3. Sajó, Dávid (2018-03-22). "Orosz mintára teríti a gyűlöletet és az álhíreket a teljes Fidesz-média". index.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  4. "Egy középiskolás legyőzte az Origót és a Lokált". media1.hu (in Hungarian). 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  5. Bayer, Lili (2019-04-03). "Google pulls grant to Hungarian publisher over fake news allegations". Politico. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  6. "Törvénysértők lehetnek az Origo és a TV2 álhírei". hvg.hu (in Hungarian). 2018-03-23. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  7. Horváth, Bence (2017-05-16). "Egyetlen kép, ami megmutatja a különbséget az újságírás és a fideszes propaganda között". 444.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  8. Oroszi, Babett (2018-09-29). "A case study in Hungarian propaganda: this is how the pro-government media works if something awkward is revealed about PM Orban". atlatszo.hu. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  9. Corruption Research Center Budapest (2018-05-19). "The impact of Russia's state-run propaganda apparatus on online media in Hungary – 2010–2017" (PDF). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  10. ""Akkor még azt is kattintották, hogy valaki szőkíti az olajat" - Interjú Nádori Péterrel". mediatortenet.hu (in Hungarian). 2016-03-21. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  11. ""Soha nem voltunk része az újságírói szakmának" – Interjú Uj Péterrel". meditatortenet.hu (in Hungarian). 2016-03-21. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  12. Gerényi, Gábor (2012-06-15). "Mit ér a portál, ha magyar?" (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  13. "Megújult az AltaVizsla kereső". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2000-06-20. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  14. Gerényi, Gábor (2012-08-03). "Hirtelen halál" (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  15. "Távozik az Origo főszerkesztője Weyer Balázs". delmagyar.hu (in Hungarian). 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  16. Gerényi, Gábor (2012-11-05). "Betemet a dotkomválság" (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  17. "Nagy a visszhangja az iWiW eladásának". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2006-04-30. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  18. "Az iWiW sztori" (in Hungarian). 2009-01-20. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  19. "Bloggal bővít a T-Online". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  20. "Megújul az [origo] címlapja". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  21. "Az Index volt vezére irányítja az Origót". itcafe.hu (in Hungarian). 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  22. Gazda, Albert (2014-08-22). "Az Origo és én". cink.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  23. "Távoznak az Origo vezetői". index.hu (in Hungarian). 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  24. "Gazdára talált az Origo" (in Hungarian). Kreatív Online. 2011-10-21. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  25. "Távozik az Origo főszerkesztője". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2013-09-24. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  26. "Uj Péter beszáll az Origo átalakításába". hvg.hu (in Hungarian). 2012-11-13. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  27. "Megvan az Origo főszerkesztője". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  28. "A Telekom már tavaly átengedte az Origót a kormánynak". 444.hu (in Hungarian). 2014-06-05. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  29. "Új főszerkesztő az Origo.hu élén". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  30. Magyari, Péter (2014-08-22). "Politikai okokból kellett távoznia az Origo főszerkesztőjének, állítja egykori helyettese". 444.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  31. "Figyelő: A Fideszben bekattant, hogy az Origo beperelte a kormányt". hvg.hu (in Hungarian). 2014-06-12. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  32. Plankó, Gergő (2014-06-05). "Vége az Origo Hírek rovatának". 444.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  33. Szalay, Dániel (2016-02-08). "Lezárult az Origo eladása, megszólalt az új vezérigazgató". 24.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  34. Rényi, Pál Dániel (2016-03-17). "György Bence az Origo új főszerkesztője". 444.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  35. "Távozik György Bence, az Origo tartalomigazgatója". hvg.hu (in Hungarian). 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  36. "Gábor László az Origo főszerkesztője". origo.hu (in Hungarian). 2017-09-21. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  37. Kasnyik, Márton (2017-06-28). "Matolcsy fia megvette az Origót". 444.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  38. "Matolcsy Ádám: Az Origót én nem tartom propagandaoldalnak". 24.hu (in Hungarian). 2017-06-28. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  39. "Brazíliában készült képpel illusztrálta az Origo a nagy-britanniai migránspoklot". nepszava.hu (in Hungarian). 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  40. Koncz, Tamás (2017-05-31). "Pert vesztett az Origo, fizethet a Vonáról szóló cikke miatt". magyarnemzet.hu. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  41. "Döntött a bíróság: három dologban is hazudott az Origo Czeglédy Csabával kapcsolatban". magyarnarancs.hu (in Hungarian). 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  42. Bernáth, Lackó (2019-02-24). "Késő éjjel jelent meg helyreigazítás az Origón Juhász Péterről, gyorsan le is vették főoldalról". merce.hu (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 2019-02-26. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  43. Fábián, Tamás (2018-08-27). "Beismertek néhány súlyos hazugságot". index.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  44. "53 helyreigazítási pert vesztett tavaly a kormányközeli média, sokkal többet mint egy évvel korábban". atlatszo.hu (in Hungarian). 2018-03-24. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  45. Erdélyi, Katalin (2019-02-07). "109 helyreigazítási pert vesztett 2018-ban a kormányközeli média". atlatszo.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2019-08-31.
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