Radical mayor makes threats against Atlatszo.hu journalist

The radical mayor of Erpatak Zoltan Mihaly Orosz is a well-known figure to Atlatszo.hu, as we have extensively covered the numerous anomalies in the town under his control. Naturally, Orosz is no fan of ours, nor any media outlet that dares to be even remotely critical of how he does things. Most recently this led to an Atlatszo.hu journalist getting threats and being chased on the road by Orosz and his crew.

Atlatszo.hu has written numerous stories about Erpatak, and its mayor who runs the impoverished locality with an iron fist. Zoltan Mihaly Orosz’s toughness often materializes in terror and intimidation, not to mention the fact that he apparently tends to use the town’s funds for his own purposes.

Most recently, the assembly of the town called for an extraordinary session, since Orosz has still been unable to provide the records of the town’s finances from last year. Without closure, it is not possible to open a new budgetary period, meaning the money will dry up and the town will become non-operational.

The open session was attended by Csaba Moricz, Atlatszo.hu reporter who has closely monitored Orosz and accordingly has a tense relationship with the mayor. As soon as he shows up, the recording of the assembly evidences that Orosz completely forgets himself, instead of answering the town representatives’ queries about the money, he is preoccupied with hurling insults and threats at our colleague. When the session was over without an results to show, Moricz left, but Orosz and some of his men decided to pursue. Moricz received a warning phone call from one of the representatives in the room who heard Orosz and company deliberating. Given that opponents of Orosz in the town are known to end up with losses and injuries, Moricz feared for his safety especially since three cars were after him.

The chase ended when Moricz spotted a police car and went to the authorities for help. However, it was him that the police wanted to identify, an event that Orosz’s men were filming, with the journalist’s personal information being recorded. Moricz insisted that the police officers escort him safely to the city border, which is when Orosz left. He also filed criminal charges for the threats against him.

Original article in Hungarian