Gábor Polyák, lawyer, leader of the project
Dr Gábor Polyák works as a professor for media law and media policy and as the head of the Media and Communication Department of the Eötvös Loránd University. He also works for the Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences as a senior research fellow. Further, he is researcher of Mertek Media Monitor, a Hungarian NGO dealing with media policy issues. His educational background includes law and media studies at the University of Pécs, Master of Laws degree in ICT law at the University of Vienna, PhD degree and habilitation at the University of Pécs. He teaches and does research in the fields of media law, IT law, media policy. In 2020, he was awarded by the Voltaire Prize for Tolerance, International Understanding and Respect for Differences of the University Potsdam. His last books are Medienpolitik in Osteuropa. Theoretischer Rahmen und mediale Praxis (Berlin: B & S Siebenhaar Verlag, 2018); Algoritmusok, keresők, közösségi oldalak és a jog – A forgalomirányító szolgáltatások szabályozása [Algorithms, Search Engines, Social Media – Regulation of Intermediaries] (Budapest: HVG-Orac, 2020)..
Krisztina Nagy, lawyer
From 1996 to 2010, was the staff member of the media authority. Her specifications are: constitutional grounds and interrelations of the media law, legal means of child protection under the media law. She has published several studies in these subjects. Guest teacher of media law courses at Corvinus University of Budapest, at University of Pécs. PhD. student in the doctoral program of the Faculty of Law at the University of Pécs. Her PhD. research areas are: Child protection in the Digital Age, Media literacy regulatory issues.
Ágnes Urbán, economist
Associate professor and chair of the Infocommunications Department at the Corvinus University of Budapest. She received her master’s degree in 1998 and followed up with a PhD degree that was awarded a grade of summa cum laude in 2006 (Corvinus). She is an instructor of the subjects Media Economics; Media Systems and Media Policies; and Media and Audience Research. She is also co-founder of Mertek Media Monitor media watchdog organization. Urbán’s main research areas are changes in media business models, trends in media consumption patterns, the evolution of the
Hungarian media market and the analysis of policy issues concerning media markets. She was involved in European research programmes in the recent years. Urbán is the author of some 100 Hungarian and English-language international publications in the fields of media and infocommunications. Her publications include books, book chapters, journal articles and conference presentations.
Ildikó Kovács, journalist, marketing communications specialist
After graduation in Hungarian-Cultural Management major at ELTE TFK, she made postgraduate studies at PTE and Budapesti Gazdasági Főiskola. in the last 15 years she worked for multinational in various managerial positions, where is obtained administrative, marketing and communications experience and now she is strenghten the NGO sector with these skills.
Petra Szávai, PhD student, media studies expert
She graduated in communication and media studies and is currently a student of the Doctoral Program “Language and Communication” at the University of Pécs. She is interested in the polarization of the public, especially in the research of different media outlets’ contents and their consuming audiences, her mainly preferred methods are in the field of quantitative analyses. She has been working for Mertek Media Monitor since 2017 as an external expert, now she is a research fellow and coordinator of the Hungarian team’s work in MEDIADELCOM project.
Kata Horváth, PhD student
Kata Horváth is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Media and Communication, at Eötvös Loránd University, and a researcher at Mérték Media Monitor. Her research focuses on recent transformations in the Hungarian media system from the viewpoints of journalistic practices, disinformation and fact-checking. She was awarded the New National Excellence Program Scholarship for her research on fact-checking in Hungary. She was awarded the Pro Scientia Gold Medal in 2023. Among other things, she is currently researching the resilience of Hungarian journalists as a fellow of the New National Excellence Program.
External experts:
Marta Bencsik, journalist, lawyer
Graduated in legal studies in 1986 at University of Szeged. She in various legal jobs, besides wich, from 1988 she worked as journalist at the local tv and regional radio. Between 1993-1999 she was editor-reporter at Hungarian Public Radio. She worked for 11 years at the media authority, where she became head of the legal department. Her specializations are the legal practice of authorities, the public service media and balanced coverage. She has published several studies in these subjects.
Gábor Győri, senior analyst
He is a senior analyst at Policy Solutions, a Hungarian think tank. Previously, he worked as an analyst at the Demos Hungary Foundation, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Children, Youth and Sports. He studied in the United States and received an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a BA in Social Studies from Harvard University. He speaks English and German fluently and has a basic understanding of French.
Attila Mong, journalist
Sophie Schmalenberger
Universität Berlin in 2015, since September 2015 she is a M.A. student in European Studies at Aarhus University (Denmark) where she will complete her M.A. thesis focusing on the work of Hungarian NGOs in face of Democratic backsliding in Hungary. As an ERASMUS-student she lived in Göteborg for 5 months in 2013. The title of B.A Thesis was “Eurosceptic parties in Denmark and Sweden: Explaining divergent electoral success in the 2014 EP election.” From 2013-2015 she has been working as Student Assistant at Freie Universität, namely for the University´s Press Office, the Research- Group “the Transformative Power of Europe” and the Division „Communication Theory and Media Effects“(Institute for Media & Communication Studies). As Intern at Mertek Media Monitoring she spent 3 month in Hungary in autumn 2016, however she will uphold her professional relation with Mertek as external expert. Her main academic interests so far are issues touching upon democracy in the context of the EU, mostly combined with aspects of media, public sphere and political communication. Her language skills comprise German and English as well as intermediate levels of Dutch and Danish as well as basic knowledge of Swedish and French.
János Timár, lawyer, sociologist
In 1974, he earned a law degree from Eötvös Loránd University, and was student at ELTE Sociology Department. His first job was in the Mass Communication Research Centre, where in the first time he was dealing with the long-range planning at the media field, later he became a research fellow in the Department of Public Opinion Research. During the Hungarian Transition he founded with other colleagues the Median Public Opinion and Market Research Institute, where until 1996 he worked as a research leader. Meanwhile, as media expert helped the Fidesz and later the government in the preparations of the media law. In 1996, the parliament – after the nomination of Free Democrats – elected to a member of the media authority (ORTT) and this was repeated in 2000, 2004 and 2008. The work carried out by the termination of ORTT. Currently, the possibilities of early childhood media literacy is in his central concern. As an educator, he teaches and taught media law at the University of Pécs, (postgraduate training) and at ELTE and Kodolányi College.
Erik Uszkiewicz, lawyer
He is specializing in the field of protection of fundamental rights, he wrote several publications. He gratueted in law at ELTE with summa cum laude in 2011. From September 2011 he is a PhD candidate in Legal and Political Science program at ELTE University. His research program focuses on prejudice and discrimnation in the jurisdictional practise.