People power on show in Slovakia
A month after the grisly double murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, the aftershocks continue to reverberate throughout Slovakia, underscoring the country’s struggles with corruption and the vital importance of the quest to uncover it.
The murders have been met with universal condemnation and outrage inside Slovakia and throughout the European Union.
Kuciak was the first journalist ever to be killed for his work in Slovakia’s 25 years as an independent state. Until now, it had enjoyed a reputation as a country where expression was generally tolerated.
The report Kuciak was working on – a meticulous account of the ties between government officials and an Italian mafia syndicate accused of defrauding the EU of subsidy funds – prompted the killing, according to Slovakia’s state prosecutor.
While the criminal case remains open, the episode attests to the role that free media plays in a world where transparency has become a norm. Stemming the flow of information is becoming nearly impossible.
That’s why the murders of Kuciak and Kusnirova are so jarring. This is not supposed to happen in the European Union of 2018.
But if the murderers hoped to silence critics by killing Kuciak, their plan is backfiring.
The candlelight vigils young Slovaks have organised in memory of Kuciak and his fiancee have grown rapidly. Demonstrators began by calling for an honest and accountable investigation into the killings, but now they are demanding the end of the current government, which is seen as tainted by the corruption Kuciak helped expose.
The public outcry has also led to fresh inquiries into the allegations outlined in Kuciak’s reporting.
This week, the European Commission’s Anti-fraud Office announced it is conducting a preliminary assessment into the mismanagement of EU subsidies Kuciak alleged.
‘‘We find all this information alarming as it strongly signals that there is a potentially systemic misuse of EU funds in Slovakia,’’ a group of eight members of the European Parliament wrote in a letter requesting the inquiry. ‘‘We are very concerned that EU funds and agriculture subsidies could be siphoned off to fund criminal activities.’’
In the aftermath of the murders, then-prime Minister Robert Fico made a bizarre public commitment to ‘‘find the killers’’, offering a reward of 1 million euros for information leading to arrests. But those promises rang hollow to many.
Fico has long aimed ire at journalists, once calling a group of them ‘‘dirty anti-slovak prostitutes’’.
This time, though, he failed to divert attention from the burgeoning scandal and was forced to resign.
Nonetheless, public confidence in the rule of law in the EU member state has come unhinged. As time continues to pass since the crime, the odds of a proper investigation become bleaker.
Officials with close ties to the Italian crime organisation implicated in the murders were reportedly among the first to enter the crime scene, fuelling speculation about evidencetampering.
Many Slovaks simply assume their officials are corrupt. ‘‘Most of the anger, passion and motivation is holding on, but I can see that normal citizens are getting back to the status quo,’’ says Peter Habara, an editor at Kuciak’s website. ‘‘The corrupted government is still in power.’’
Yet he emphasises that Kuciak and Kusnirova have left behind an important legacy nonetheless. ‘‘Two talented, modest and promising young people were killed viciously in their house only because they wanted to make this country a better place.’’
One can only hope that their example will serve to inspire the next generation – and not just in Slovakia.
The Washington Post