Foundation and early years (1998–2001) Four former
Magyar Narancs employees, namely Péter Nádori, Ferenc Pohly, György Simó, and Balázs Weyer, decided to start an online news website. After contacting other media publishers such as
Népszabadság, they were eventually given funds for the
website by
Magyar Telekom (then called MATÁV) in order to popularise internet subscriptions in Hungary. Preparations for the website began in May 1997, and it was eventually launched a year later, in December 1998. This soon changed as MATÁV's resources were not as limited as Internetto's, They also purchased
email provider freemail.hu, further boosting their popularity as Origo were now able to offer a complete news, search engine, and email package, something Index were unable to do. In 2000, Nádori was replaced by Weyer as Origo's editor-in-chief.
Rise as the most popular news site in Hungary (2001–2010) Origo's financial strength meant that they were able to cover the
September 11 attacks without any server problems, while Index was constantly struggling with outages. This cemented Origo's position as the most popular news site in Hungary for years to come. In 2006, Origo's owners, Magyar Telekom (then called T-Online), announced that they were purchasing
iWiW, Hungary's largest
social media site at the time. This allowed for some level of integration between Origo and iWiW, especially after they transferred iWiW over to Origo. They also purchased blogging service Blogter.hu, a competitor to Index's blog.hu. In 2009, Origo's frontpage was redesigned.
Pressures by the Orban government (2010–2015) In 2010, former Index employee Miklós Vaszily became Origo's new CEO. Vaszily was tasked with making the company profitable. Several other former Index employees also joined the website around this time. In 2011, editor-in-chief Balázs Weyer left the company, and he was eventually replaced by Index's Albert Gazda. Under his tenure, Origo went through another design change, with the help of
Péter Uj, Index's co-founder and former editor-in-chief. In 2013, Gazda was replaced by Gergő Sáling, after he resigned. Sáling did not last long at the company as he was fired in June 2014. Although Origo officially cited the "adapting to the changing ways of media consumption" as the reason of his firing, many were sceptical of this reasoning, citing the lawsuit of Sáling's deputy András Pethő against Fidesz official
János Lázár as the cause of his departure. The new editor-in-chief after Sáling's departure was Ákos Pálmai. After the transaction, Pálmay was replaced by Bence György as the website's editor-in-chief, who stayed in his position until September 2017, when he was replaced by László Gábor. In 2017, it was announced that New Wave Media was purchased by Ádám Matolcsy, the son of
György Matolcsy who is the governor of the
Hungarian National Bank and a Fidesz member. Although Matolcsy had denied that Origo would be used for the purposes of propaganda, the website began uncritically supporting Orbán's anti-immigration campaign, Origo was the third most visited Hungarian website. Until this time, when it shifted to pro-
Orbanism, Origo was for known its balanced reporting. As a result of the acquisition, it began supporting the anti-immigration campaign of the governing parties and reported fake news on several occasions, and has also falsified foreign news in order to make a negative statement. Origo has also repeatedly claimed untruth about opposition politicians. In 2019,
Google withdrew a grant given to New Wave Media, the publisher of Origo. Hungarian courts ordered Origo to issue corrections in 34 cases in 2018, and Gábor Polyák, head of the Hungarian
media watchdog Mérték Media Monitor, said that "Origo is an emblematic player of the Fidesz propaganda media" and that it was spreading "thousands of pieces of news about migrants in an extremely negative context and accompanied by false videos and photos". and repeatedly claimed after the then incumbent
President Trump's election defeat that the election had been rigged, with no evidence supporting the claim. Many of the allegations made by Origo in this regard later proved to be false. In January 2021, Origo blamed "the
presidency of Joe Biden" for the
January 6 United States Capitol attack, even though
President Biden had not yet been inaugurated at the time. During the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Origo was criticised for spreading
Russian propaganda and pro-Kremlin views. For example, Origo aligned with the Orbán administration's narrative about the
Russo-Ukrainian War, often using phrases like "Orbán wants peace". its uncritical support of the Fidesz
ruling party, and regularly spreading fake news. Several critics described the website as "state-run propaganda". In a 2025 column, Georg Spöttle warned Origo readers that
Ukraine's accession to the European Union would lead to "Ukrainian mafias" involved in prostitution, human trafficking, and drug smuggling appearing in Hungary. Spöttle was described as a "German-Hungarian pro-Orbán media figure who frequently appears in government-aligned outlets and once ran as a Fidesz candidate", with reported ties to
Russian intelligence. Weeks later, Orbán and his government adopted the same narrative. == See also ==