(Actually it is not an incident, but I though the title sounds better this way ., I’m still working on the entry I promised in the previous post so I use some other topics meanwhile, but this is still somewhat connected to that.)

About a week ago (if I recall it correctly it was the 14th of November) one of the leading Hungarian portals – Index – appeared with a rather strange homepage. All of the articles were about the Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, but all were making fun out of him. Here is a screenshot from Sztahanov blog. Rumors started whether the portal was hacked or it is just a planned ironic journalist move from the editors of Index. Initially on forums one could find opinions supporting both possibilities. Either a hack from a right wing activist or the PR move of the editors. Some found it funny and other just disrespectful, which is pretty natural I guess.

I turned out the whole thing was well planned ahead. Some opinions from bloggers:

Sztahanov: “According to our reliable sources Index plans this mischief for a week now. It’s interesting that this news arrived to us from 5 different sources in about 5 minutes, almost all of this were some form of IM, only one email. So tired.
Update: even the Hungarian National Security Agency and the National Police Office Headquarters phoned Index, that they have been hacked. They have forgot to take their humor pills in the morning. Ouch!”

Egy székely Budapesten: “Smart, a very smart trick. This should be taught. I value the flexibility with which they were able to convince the management, that this is a ***** good idea (although it is possible that the idea came form the top).”

Hírbehozó: “This is what happens when the infotainment and election campaign meets and hit each other in the head.”

E-Media: “Is this a Fidesz campaign? [Henrik’s note, Fidesz is currently the big opposition party in Hungary.] Or the effort of Index to get rid of the left-liberal label? Or maybe the next try of MSZP to speak the “voice of the youth”? [Henrik’s note, MSZP is the currently governing party in Hungary.] I suspect it is the latter.”Later Pollner cynically adds after pondering on the possible positive affect on the revenues of Index: “The loss on the other side is not more than the lone credibility. Who gives a shit.”

(The referenced blogs are in English)

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