Why Átlátszó tried to forecast, and not just visualise, COVID-19 cases in Hungary
By: Tara Kelly
Tags: Case Study, Journalism, Press Freedom, Data Journalism, Media

Átlátszó operated in a difficult environment during COVID-19 as hospital staff were expressly banned from speaking to the press. This meant the team received anonymous leaks about topics including the shortage of masks and the unreliability of the rapid COVID-19 tests imported from China. Most recently they published an anonymous diary from a healthcare worker explaining what it was like to work in a hospital during the height of Hungary’s pandemic. To ensure safety, the team maintains a strict policy of not using a mobile phone and of communicating solely via secure email. It also advises sources to use Gmail or Protonmail as well as other encrypted chat and voice applications like Signal, Viber or WhatsApp.

Átlátszó Facebook post

Átlátszó’s website saw unique visitors more than doubled from 600,000 in February to 1.4 million in March. Traffic rose when the team published COVID-19 stories that the mainstream media weren’t reporting on. For example, its most popular piece during COVID-19 was about a relative of a politician from Fidesz, Viktor Orban’s right-wing party, profiteering on the shortage of medical supplies. The Hungarian version of the article reached 72,000 shares on Facebook. The team believes that publishing stories the Hungarian mainstream media weren’t covering — such as the reorganisation of hospitals — made the site a destination for concerned citizens. Traffic in April dropped to about 1.3 million unique visitors and then just over a million visitors in May (see chart below).

The organisation saw a handful of people cancelling their microdonations out of over 3000. This is likely due to the economic uncertainty as people may continue to fear being laid off. Átlátszó doesn’t yet know how donations have been impacted by the pandemic’s economic blowback as the government only releases information about the 1% tax donations in September.

How has COVID-19 changed the future of Átlátszó?

When Átlátszó started crowdfunding in 2011, no other Hungarian media was asking their readers for donations. Today, all independent media in Hungary does crowdfunding, making the market much more competitive and harder for Atlaszo to raise funds from readers. Pressure on international donors to help out independent Hungarian media has increased in recent years. This means Átlátszó expects more competition for crowdfunding and international donors as well.

Átlátszó will continue to work with the data journalism team. The success of the ‘koronamonitor’ has demonstrated the power of data journalism to stand on its own. While there are no extra resources to invest in the team, they want to find more data-led stories that can add to the depth of their coverage.

Átlátszó’s mission remains the same. It will continue to publish stories on COVID-19 and hold the government to account. The new fake news law in Hungary means the team has to continue to report very carefully and to focus on fact-checking. They continue to work with lawyers and fight attempts to silence their work.

What have they learned?

“Investigative reporting on Covid-19 was in high demand since most of the Hungarian press did not cover the pressing issues during the lockdown. We have learned if you have enough courage to report on problems during a crisis your audience will reward you. The ‘koronamonitor’ was by far the most successful data journalism feature we ever did. This made us realise that data journalism can be very important to our work. Prior to this, we saw data journalism as a ‘nice to have’ add-on feature but not a necessity. This was the first case where data journalists played a central role in Átlátszó and were the most important element of our coronavirus content. This means we will look for news topics that can be visualised and explained in a similar way.”

Tamas Bodoky, executive director, Átlátszó