{"id":666,"date":"2026-09-28T11:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaforum.hu\/?p=666"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:09:00","slug":"minosegi-ujsagiras-dij-polgar-toth-tamas-es-alkototarsai-debreciner-a-masodik-negyedev-fodijasai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaforum.hu\/en\/2026\/09\/28\/minosegi-ujsagiras-dij-polgar-toth-tamas-es-alkototarsai-debreciner-a-masodik-negyedev-fodijasai\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality Journalism Awards\u2014Tam\u00e1s Polg\u00e1r T\u00f3th and His Colleagues (Debreciner) Take Grand Prize for The Second Quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 22 2026.<\/p>\n

The Mediaforum Association has announced the winners of the second quarter of 2026 of the Quality Journalism Awards, which recognize the most outstanding journalistic achievements. The grand prize went to Tam\u00e1s Polg\u00e1r T\u00f3th, Gerda K\u00e1ntor-\u00dajv\u00e1ri, S\u00e1ra Bodn\u00e1r, Boldizs\u00e1r Bereczki, and F\u00e1bi\u00e1n Matolcsy (Debreciner). Special awards were presented to Vilmos B\u00e1bel (444), Andr\u00e1s Dezs\u0151 (Telex), Gerzson Ny\u00e1rai (24.hu), as well as Andr\u00e1s Szab\u00f3 and Patrik Galavits (Direkt36).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Quality Journalism Award for the second quarter of 2026 was presented to the Debreciner team\u2014Tam\u00e1s Polg\u00e1r T\u00f3th, Gerda K\u00e1ntor-\u00dajv\u00e1ri, S\u00e1ra Bodn\u00e1r, Boldizs\u00e1r Bereczki, and F\u00e1bi\u00e1n Matolcsy\u2014for their documentary, \u201cAkkuv\u00e1ros \u2013 Battery City \u2013 Factories in the Back Yard.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Akkuv\u00e1ros \u2013 Battery City \u2013 Factories in the Back Yard\u2019” is a documentary running just over an hour, put together by the Debreciner team from existing footage. The film captures the expansion of Debrecen\u2019s battery industry\u2014or rather, the smaller human stories within a grand narrative that remains, in every detail, unexamined and perhaps unexaminable.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, it tells the story of grass-roots resistance: the ordinary people who organized against these developments for years and continue to do so today. Beside laying out this tragic arc in clear, gripping sequence, the film acts as a tribute to those involved. Its most heart-wrenching and powerful scenes document their persistence and the vicious smear campaign directed against them.<\/p>\n

Nor can we say they lost: while they could not stop the factories from being built, the shift in political landscape may yet allow them to exercise real civilian oversight over these plants.<\/p>\n

If there is any truth to that tired\u2014and usually meaningless\u2014phrase, \u2018I knew it, but I had no idea,\u2019 Factories in the Back Yard embodies it. We all followed the expansion and abuses of CATL and its peers, and we knew the role the Orb\u00e1n government played as both architect and accomplice. But reading about it is one thing; seeing it on screen is another. Shot with care, tightly edited, and skillfully cut\u2014no doubt on a modest budget\u2014it brings into sharp focus the scale of environmental destruction, the arrogance of power, and the courage of those who stood up to it.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to the filmmakers\u2014Tam\u00e1s Polg\u00e1r-T\u00f3th, Gerda K\u00e1ntor-\u00dajv\u00e1ri, Boldizs\u00e1r Bereczki, and S\u00e1ra Bodn\u00e1r\u2014for this important work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Special Award Winners<\/strong>
\nFour additional works received special recognition for the second quarter:<\/p>\n

Vilmos B\u00e1bel (444) \u2014 \u201cWe Don\u2019t Question Witnesses in Handcuffs\u2014Take the Handcuffs Off the Witness\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn March 2026, an incident occurred in Hungary that would make even hardened dictators pause: deploying secret services and armed forces, the Hungarian state engaged in what amounted to highway robbery. The incident involving the Ukrainian cash transporters is widely known, but 444 reporter Vilmos B\u00e1bel dug deeper, drawing on reliable sources to reconstruct what took place behind closed doors.
\nWhile the political angles speak for themselves, the human cost is what makes reading the piece so unsettling. Orders came from the top to intercept the shipment, detain the couriers, and inflate the event into a massive propaganda spectacle. Certain domestic officials did not merely carry out orders; they threw themselves into the task with zeal. There was no room for basic decency\u2014not even a subtle nod to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation.
\nCounter-terrorism agents treated the Ukrainian couriers caught up in the government\u2019s campaign with overt harshness: keeping them handcuffed for thirty hours, pulling ski masks backward over their faces during transfer to Z\u00e1hony, and barely giving them room to breathe. What demanded such secrecy during their transport to the border? Plainly nothing\u2014it was a display of power for its own sake.
\nDespite the outrageous nature of these events, Vilmos B\u00e1bel guides the reader through them with precision and emotional distance\u2014a detachment that proves far more impactful than outrage when documenting state abuse. His thorough reporting is a testament to meticulous field research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e1s Dezs\u0151 (Telex) \u2014 \u201cOrb\u00e1n Decided to Crack Down on the Ukrainian \u2018Gold Convoy\u2019; Even the Timing of the Raid Came from the Government\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gerzson Ny\u00e1rai (24.hu) \u2014 \u201cOur Patients Are in Unworthy Conditions\u2014A Day in the Psychiatric Ward of J\u00e1nos Hospital\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing inherently revolutionary about a film crew stepping into a hospital ward, spending a day with staff, and producing a solid documentary. But in Hungary, this was off-limits for years. That is why, in 2026, watching a report on hospital conditions feels both unprecedented and jarring. Gerzson Ny\u00e1rai\u2019s piece inside the psychiatric ward of J\u00e1nos Hospital handles a sensitive subject with care. What he reveals is stark: in the homeland of Ign\u00e1c Semmelweis, taps run without hot water, showers back up to the ankles, and staff buy their own supplies\u2014often repairing doorknobs or heating units out of pocket. Painting the walls in color is dismissed as too costly; in summer, swarms of basement mosquitoes plague the facility. Yet despite these conditions, the staff remain improbably optimistic, driven by a simple wish: that their patients can recover with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e1s Szab\u00f3 and Patrik Galavits (Direkt36) \u2013 \u201cWe Were Deceiving Ourselves\u201d \u2013 Inside the Collapse of Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz Party\u2019s Campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the run-up to the April elections, a growing number of insiders began speaking to the press\u2014increasingly on the record\u2014about the inner workings of the system. That trend continues today, if less dramatically.
\nGood journalism requires more than finding sources willing to talk; it means vetting competing narratives, providing context, and rendering complex events clear and vivid\u2014especially when ‘insider tell-alls’ become a genre unto themselves. Andr\u00e1s Szab\u00f3 and Patrik Galavits did precisely this. Six weeks after the election, they published the inside story of the Fidesz campaign\u2019s collapse. By cross-referencing accounts and reconstructing critical moments of crisis, they provided an unprecedented look behind a curtain that had been drawn for sixteen years. They accomplished this using classic journalistic craft: laying out facts while offering the analysis needed to make sense of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

About the Award and Selection Process<\/h3>\n

Re-established this year after a four-year hiatus, the Quality Journalism Award was created in 1997 to honor exceptional Hungarian-language reporting. Entries were open to written, audio, and video pieces published between April 1 and June 30, 2026. Winners were selected by a professional jury appointed by member organizations of the Mediaforum Association.<\/p>\n

Jury Members<\/b><\/p>\n