An appeal for contribution to keep galamus.hu alive

Dear Readers of Hungarian Spectrum:

I hope you will consider making a contribution, however modest, to ensure the survival of Galamus. Zsófia Miháncsik, the journalist and translator who founded the news and opinion site, has a sterling reputation as a woman of high principles. Her sharp-eyed political analyses are almost always on target. She refuses to make compromises with the powers-that-be and jealously guards Galamus’s independence.

I was privileged to be one of the founding members of the Galamus Group and therefore its fate is close to my heart. Unfortunately, after a while I had to stop being a regular contributor. Writing daily articles for Hungarian Spectrum simply took too much of my time.

I am sure that you are all familiar with the names of the regular and guest contributors and appreciate the quality of their writings. But, in addition, Galamus’s contribution to the cause of free media in Hungary is enormous in other key ways. Thanks to the linguistic talent of Júlia Horváth, a new addition to the unpaid staff, readers of Galamus have access to articles about Hungary that appeared in the German, French, English, and Russian press. This is especially important today when MTI, the national news agency, is under government control and rarely reports on foreign news about Hungary.

I find Zsófia Miháncsik’s comments accompanying the news especially important. These kinds of articles are found nowhere else in the Hungarian media. That is why I was honored to be asked to sign an appeal alongside of such luminaries in Hungarian cultural and political life as György Dallos, Ágnes Heller, Péter Kende, György Konrád, and Paul Lendvai.

I am happy to announce that offering financial assistance to Galamus is very easy nowadays.  www.galamus.hu/tamogatas will take you to the site where through PayPal you can easily make a contribution. The only thing you need is a credit or debit card.

I do hope that you will help Galamus. I would surely appreciate it. Thank you.

Eva S. Balogh

* * *

                                                                                                            25 January, 2013

Dear Madam, Dear Sir, Dear Friend,

The Hungarian Galamus Group website (www.galamus.hu), a sophisticated Hungarian-language independent opinion and news site featuring daily updates, was created by ten Hungarian intellectuals – philosophers, linguists, lawyers, journalists, sociologists and computer experts – in December 2008. Over the last three years, the site featured several thousand valuable in-depth and analytical articles written by members of the group and, increasingly, by a growing number of contributing guest authors about not merely the processes of Hungarian politics and public life but also the advance of the extremist right wing and racism. With its 24/7 meaningful foreign and domestic news service and its news commentaries exploring various connections, the website also serves as a tool for informing readers. It is unique among Hungarian internet and printed newspapers in that it offers a daily selection of articles and commentaries carried in the foreign press about Hungary and Hungarian affairs in translation.

Over the past three years, thanks to the daily analyses about events, public life and politics written by members of the group and guest authors, a free, alternative and mainly left-wing liberal yet nonpartisan intellectual forum has been created, something that is very much needed in contemporary Hungary.

Operating the website does, however, have its costs. The authors do not receive remuneration and in the first year and a half covered the costs of the site from their own sources. Later on, galamus.hu operated with financial support from its readers. Now, however, in an ever impoverished Hungary that has a state-influenced advertising market, the Galamus Group is threatened with termination: it not only is unable to develop, it is also doomed.

We would therefore kindly ask you to help the survival of Galamus: please support the site, if possible. Should there be enough of us who sacrifice money for an independent, high-standard internet site that is not funded by anyone, we would be promoting the survival not merely of the Galamus Group but also of the diverse Hungarian press as well. Both of these are greatly necessary in contemporary Hungary.

Publisher of the Galamus Group and account number:

Editor Galamus Kft.

CIB Bank

CIBH-HU-HB

EUR: 10700419-66493934-50000005 (IBAN: HU25-1070-0419-6649-3934-5000-0005);

USD: 10700419-66493934-50100002 (IBAN: HU04-1070-0419-6649-3934-5010-0002)

Sending a contribution through PayPal is available at www.galamus.hu/tamogatas

Éva S. Balogh, historian, Connecticut, United States

György Dalos, author, Berlin

Ágnes Heller, philosopher, Budapest

Péter Kende, historian, external member, Hungarian Academy of Sciences MTA, Paris

György Konrád, author, Budapest

Paul Lendvai, journalist, editor-in-chief of Europäische Rundschau, Vienna