CPJ is honored to present its 2026 International Press Freedom Award to Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi.
Szabolcs Panyi stands out as one of Europe’s leading investigative journalists. His stories exposing the workings of the former Orbán regime have not only had a huge impact at home in Hungary, but have also influenced wider European policy debate. His expert reporting, informed by his access to sources from national security experts to the highest ranks of government, also made him a target of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, particularly in the run-up to Hungary’s recent high-stakes election.
Early in his journalism career, Panyi wrote an influential weekly newsletter and newspaper column, and between 2013 and 2018 he was an editor and political reporter at Hungary’s largest independent news site, Index.hu. After the government’s takeover of the site, he joined investigative outlet Direkt36, and in 2017 helped launch VSquare, a cross-border investigative journalism initiative in the Central and Eastern European region. Panyi’s reporting on national security, foreign influence, corruption, and political power dynamics has been instrumental in exposing Russian influence networks in Hungary and shaping public debate in the run-up to the election that ultimately led to the Orbán government’s defeat.
Among his most impactful scoops, frequently broken via Direkt36 and his Central Europe-focused newsletter Goulash, were his 2018 “Satan’s Hand” investigation revealing Russian meddling in Budapest’s metro development, the 2021 “How Orbán Played Germany” series on covert diplomatic maneuvers, and exposés on Pegasus spyware targeting journalists.
This year, his reporting on Russian influence operations brought him into direct confrontation with the Hungarian authorities, who filed espionage charges against him in retaliation for his investigation into the Hungarian foreign minister’s murky relationship with the Kremlin. While the investigation was dropped in the weeks following Orbán’s loss at the polls, it was not the first time Panyi had been targeted. In 2021, Panyi’s cell phone was infiltrated by the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, deployed by Hungarian authorities to surveil him while he was working on a series of national security-related investigations.