About

In November 2018 Átlátszó.hu, the first independent Hungarian investigative center, launched a special team called ATLO to strengthen its graphic and visual journalism activities. Data journalism has always been important for Átlátszó, but we felt that it was time for focusing more on visual content. ATLO’s main role is to support Átlátszó’s investigative and data journalism activities with data, data-based information graphics and visualizations. Apart from this, ATLO’s aim is to produce visually compelling content related to science, statistics, digital humanities and more. ATLO is the first team in Hungary dedicated only to visual journalism.

The team was set up by three full time professionals and few contributors. The head of the team is Attila Bátorfy, who has been working at Átlátszó from 2016 as data journalist. Attila is one of the most recognized data journalist and visualization expert in Hungary, who also teaches data visualization at two universities. He is regular speaker at meetups and conferences, and researches the history of Hungraian information graphics. ATLO’s graphic designer is Bence Mikola, an award winning veteran in information graphics previously working for the two largest daily newspapers, Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet. The third member of the core team is László Horváth, a self-made programmer and coder, who is responsible for data-scraping, site-building, interactions and animations. Other members of the team: Katalin Erdélyi (investigative journalist), Blanka Kovács and Márk Tremmel. ATLO also works with many contributors, including data scientists, language experts, urbanists and visual artists.

ATLO is a logic continuity of Átlátszó’s previous data-based activities, that’s way we submit two pieces from Átlátszó’s portfolio. The data-based investigation of Átlátszó on how the government elite, including PM Viktor Orbán use private jets and luxury yachts, was awarded with the most prestigious Hungarian journalism prize, the Soma Prize for the best investigation of 2018.