One of the speakers at Connecting EU 2024's panel on investigative journalism was Lukáš Diko, director of the Ján Kuciak Investigative Centre. He spoke to us about the work of investigative reporters in Slovakia today, where the initial support for free press and the fight against corruption after Ján Kuciak’s murder has shifted to a lack of trust in independent media and a hostile atmosphere towards journalists.

1.  The murder of your colleague Ján Kuciak, the first assassination of a journalist in Slovakia since its independence, sent shockwaves through not only your country but also the EU. What is the latest in the legal case about the perpetrators?

It is six and half years since Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were murdered due to Ján's investigative work. Despite this, the trial is still ongoing and may last even longer. As of today, the assassin, his driver, and the middleman have been sentenced to long prison terms. However, the trials of the alleged mastermind, businessman Marian Kočner, and his close associate Alena Zsuzsová, who, according to the investigation, ordered the murder, are awaiting appeal decisions from the Supreme Court. Zsuzsová was convicted by the first-instance court, while Kočner was acquitted. A retrial is also a possibility depending on the upcoming decision. Both Kočner and Zsuzsová had already been serving long jail terms for other crimes. We at the Ján Kuciak Investigative center (ICJK) have been following the trial very closely as one of our main goals is to preserve the legacy of Ján by continuing his investigative work.

2. After the initial shock and protests against the murders which led to the demise of the then PM Robert Fico, what has, in your view, shifted in the public opinion for Mr Fico to be able to regain power?

After the murder of Ján and Martina in 2018, the whole society was in shock. Slovakia saw its largest popular protests since the 1989 Velvet Revolution which had led to the fall of communism. The protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico and Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák. People supported journalists, everyone wanted to be an investigative journalist and people cared about corruption. Riding this wave, the opposition won the election in 2020 with an anti-corruption agenda. But soon afterwards, the Covid-19 pandemic started with all its problems and mismanagement and political turmoil. As an experienced politician, Robert Fico capitalised on anti-vaccination protests, which gave him momentum. With the start of the war in Ukraine, he also intensified his pro-Russian narratives, which helped his party, Smer, regain support. Slovakia is particularly vulnerable to propaganda and hoaxes, and these factors contributed to Robert Fico and his party winning the 2023 elections.

3. How dangerous is it to be an investigative journalist in Slovakia today? What new threats are you facing in your work?

Over the last few years four investigative journalists were murdered in EU member states. Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in 2017, Ján Kuciak in Slovakia in 2018, Giorgos Karaivaz in Greece in 2021 and Peter de Vries in the Netherlands in 2021. Being an investigative journalist has become dangerous in Europe. But we can also see that murdering of one journalist will not silence the truth and the truth will come to light. We saw it in all those countries.

Despite these horrendous murders, we can still see an increasing number of verbal or online attacks against journalists in Slovakia, often incited by politicians including the prime minister, and often inciting harassment and smear campaigns against journalists. This hostile atmosphere against journalists and independent media leads to other acts against them. Recently, we have seen an increase in SLAPPs, with for example, prime minister Fico suing the editor-in-chief of Aktuality.sk for using his photo on the cover of a book. And the most recent case involved the misuse of law enforcement to intimidate journalists, which happened to our colleague at ICJK. All of these attacks lead to public trust in the independent media being undermined as well as an overall hostile atmosphere towards journalists. As a consequence, the number of investigative journalists in the country is decreasing, and not many young people are aspiring to become investigative journalists. On a positive note, we at ICJK started the project Safe.journalism.sk, which provides training in personal and digital security for journalists as well as legal and psychosocial help to journalists who face threats and attacks.

Lukáš Diko is the editor-in-chief and chairman at the Investigative Centre of Ján Kuciak (ICJK). Lukáš is an investigative journalist and media leader with more than 20 years' experience. He worked as a director of news, sports and public affairs of Slovak public broadcaster RTVS. Lukáš is also co-author of Code of Ethics of Slovak journalists adopted in 2011.