On the hard road ahead for Magyar. 🤞 NB: “Most fundamental is the issue of weakened institutions. The Polish courts, for example, were so thoroughly undermined that to this day no one knows what to do with them… Attempts to restore balance are fraught with the risk of repeating previous practices.”
Proud to publish this view on Hungary from a Polish colleague.
"As we learned, PiS left a staggering amount of traps and landmines for its successors — and many have proved impossible to defuse. Fidesz, which ruled for twice as long, has done the same in Hungary."
www.occrp.org/en/feature/a...
This is very very good and should also be read as a warning to Western Europeans and Americans who think they can weather the storm and pick things up afterwards
Excellent piece from Poland on the slow road back from illiberal laws and state controlled media. Authoritarian governments leave traps for their successors.
Worth thinking about for the USA. Even if the executive changes, there will be "traps and landmines" left behind.
It's not the sexiest topic, but this stuff is really fundamental in enabling journalism that can hold powerful bad actors to account.
...in many countries, access to these registries has been severely restricted. Here's my story on why, and what the prospects are for better transparency in the future.
www.occrp.org/en/feature/h...
Have you ever thought about how investigative journalists find out who owns a company?
One way is looking up its "ultimate beneficial owner" — not the next highest corporate layer, but the person at the top of the chain — in an official registry.
But...
This is important.
Proud to publish this view on Hungary from a Polish colleague.
"As we learned, PiS left a staggering amount of traps and landmines for its successors — and many have proved impossible to defuse. Fidesz, which ruled for twice as long, has done the same in Hungary."
www.occrp.org/en/feature/a...
...newly elected Peter Magyar says he's switching it off until it can be fixed.
www.reuters.com/business/med...
One of key ways Viktor Orban had tilted the electoral playing field in Hungary was in his dominance of the media landscape.
There were a lot of pieces to that, some more complicated and subtle than others, but one of the simplest was the relentlessly pro-government public broadcaster.
Now...
But if someone is proposing to ban fire, surely it’s relevant to point out that it’s used to make bread.
Many people say other Colombian cities are nicer to visit, but I loved my random hilarious couple of weeks in Bogota 16 years ago. Super friendly people, interesting history, access to nature, delicious food.
(16 years, damn...)
Yeah, I just have a question. Um, is this a God dam?
Is there a Dutch word for that mortifying feeling of pressing "no tip" on a payment terminal, having it fail to register, and sheepishly pressing it again — and again! — as the server impassively watches?
Geen fooi, I said! Don't make me press it again!
In a single series of attacks, Ukraine may have negated Russia's entire oil windfall from the Iran war. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
I'm kind of surprised some other NATO countries haven't done this already... nltimes.nl/2026/03/22/n...
This will immiserate people across the world, especially the poor. Nothing at all to celebrate.
Ok but the thread I’m responding to is about this report
from the report…
…also the same as the UK and Canada…
I hate this, and think it's very compelling.
How is the first line of your piece “the U.S. is not a democracy” when the V-Dem report it’s based on classifies it as an “electoral democracy” along with Canada, the UK, Brazil, etc?
Of course we see a decline under Trump, which V-Dem describes, but this framing is beyond misleading.
This is absurd. Of course we see US democracy degrading under Trump, but the claim “no longer a democracy” is not at all supported by the V Dem report. It classifies the US as an “electoral democracy” along with the UK, Colombia, Argentina, Greece, etc. Really misleading framing, why repeat it?
This is absurd. Of course we see US democracy degrading under Trump, but the claim “no longer a democracy” is not at all supported by the V Dem report. It classifies the US as an “electoral democracy” along with the UK, Colombia, Argentina, Greece, etc. Really misleading framing, why repeat it?
Proud to have worked on this investigation, just shortlisted for @gijn.org's 2026 Sigma Awards.
It details how an affiliate of a Danish company appears to have taken part in Russia’s pillaging of stolen Ukrainian grain from two occupied ports on the Sea of Azov.
www.occrp.org/en/investiga...
