Global

Slovak culture minister resigns citing journalist murder

March 01, 2018 20:16·
Murdered Slovak Reporter Sought to Expose Italian Organized Crime

Murdered Slovak Reporter Sought to Expose Italian Organized Crime

The story probed links between the Italian mafia and the inner circle of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Aktuality.sk said Kuciak co-operated on the story with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the global Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. AENews, better known as Aeronet.cz, published an article yesterday suggesting that Kuciak's murder was part of a George Soros-inspired plot to spark anti-government protests and overthrow the government in another "Orange Revolution".

In the wake of the report, Jasan and Troskova announced in a joint statement that they were resigning. "We categorically refuse any connection to this tragedy".

Murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was about to publish an investigation alleging high-level political corruption linked to the Italian mafia, the news portal he worked for revealed on Wednesday, as the killing sparked calls for fresh anti-corruption protests in the small European Union state.

'The Ministry of Culture is the portfolio closest to the media.

"As the culture minister, I am not able to cope with the fact that a journalist was killed during my time in office", he said Wednesday.

Challenges and Opportunities for CONSOL Energy Inc. (CNX)
Zacks Investment Research downgraded CNX Resources from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 8th. After $0.63 actual EPS reported by PG&E Corporation for the previous quarter, Wall Street now forecasts 74.60% EPS growth.

Man murdered on Facebook Live had 'outed local drug dealers'
A North Carolina man has been charged with a fatal shooting captured live on Facebook not far from a town's police department. People who hoped to leave birthday wishes on his Facebook page were instead confronted with video of his final moments.

Emmanuel Macron takes on unions to cut rail workers' rights
Unlike Britain, where rail services were privatised in the 1990s, the SNCF remains state-run and is seen as a national treasure. Successive governments have failed to reform the heavily unionised rail sector.

"Information about a possible breach of any organized group among the politicians, to the level of state institutions, is serious", he said.

The body of Jan Kuciak, a 27-year-old reporter for the aktuality.sk news portal owned by Axel Springer and Ringier, was discovered alongside that of Martina Kusnirova at their home in Velka Maca, 65 kilometres (40 miles) east of the Slovak capital Bratislava.

Kalinak said Slovak investigators have been cooperating with the Czech and Italian authorities on the case as well as with Europol officials.

The Czech centre said it had been working with Mr Kuciak for more than 18 months. The report triggered an angry rebuke from Fico, who showed reporters stacks of euro bills totalling the one million euro ($1.2 million) reward he has offered for information that could lead to the killers.

"You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence", Fico said. A British-born journalist who worked with Mr Kuciak has suggested he was looking into allegations about fraudulent payments of European Union funds in a tax scheme, between Slovakia and Italian nationals with alleged ties to the "Ndrangheta" organised crime group. In Malta in October, a auto bomb killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had accused people close to the prime minister of corruption.

Recommended News

Join The Conversation

We are pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news.
Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper.
Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.