Five years after the assassination of Já​​n Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, Slovak judges are nearing their judgment in the retrial of the alleged mastermind of the murder of Aktuality.sk’s journalist and his fiancée. While the hitmen and an intermediary of the February 2018 killing have already been convicted to long prison sentences, suspect Marián Kočner, charged with ordering the crime, was acquitted. With the retrial verdict expected in April 2023, our organisations renew our call for full justice for the double murder.

The undersigned organisations conducted a fact-finding and advocacy mission in the country to express their support to the families and colleagues of Já​​n Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová and as well as to evaluate press freedom in Slovakia five years after their murder. We took active part in the commemorative events and met with Slovak journalists. In meetings with the President, Prime Minister and political parties, we encouraged them to continue reforms and implement new measures to improve safety of journalists and independence of the media – including the public broadcaster RTVS – and to protect against abusive lawsuits and defend whistleblowers. Like the road to full justice for Já​​n and Martina’s assassination, Slovakia’s progress on media freedom remains fragile.

As political parties prepare for early elections scheduled for September 2023, our organisations call for new political consensus and commitments to improve media freedom and the safety of journalists to prevent any future killing of a journalist and allow Ján Kuciak’s colleagues to continue his legacy of public interest reporting.

Safety of journalists

After the 2020 elections, law enforcement bodies – the police, special prosecution and the courts – started tackling corruption revealed by journalists, which won them their trust. But full justice has not yet been served for either the assassination of Ján Kuciak or for other crimes against journalists such as their massive surveillance by “Kocner’s squad”, a network of individuals paid to supply information to the businessman. At the same time, the new survey conducted by the Investigative Centre of Ján Kuciak (ICJK) within the project Safe.Journalism.sk shows Slovak journalists are most frequently targeted with online and verbal attacks.

One of the greatest threats journalists in Slovakia are facing today are verbal attacks including denigrating smear campaigns from politicians, which acts as a signpost for members of the public to further carry out online abuse. These attacks from politicians – which should be unequivocally condemned – remain largely unsanctioned.

Political leaders and parties should:

• Commit to providing law enforcement authorities with all necessary means to bring about justice for crimes against journalists and improve their protection in line with the European Commission’s Journalist Safety Recommendation from September 2021.
• Pledge to respond positively if Slovakia’s new protection mechanism, Safe.Journalism.sk, requests cooperation.
• Pledge to ban verbal attacks and smear campaigns against media, and to condemn such attacks and sanction party members who violate the ban.
• Pass amendments to the criminal code to strengthen punishments for aggravated attacks and threats against journalists targeted for their work.

Independence of the media

In 2022, Parliament passed important bills strengthening the legal protection of confidentiality of journalistic sources as well as reinforcing transparency of media ownership and funding. The former Director General of the public broadcaster RTVS, under whose mandate more than 30 journalists had quit, was replaced after a transparent election in parliament. Lawmakers have, however, failed to fundamentally reform the heavily political selection process. Moreover, as of July 2023, they decided to remove the licence fees, the main source of funding, and replace them with state subsidies pending a long-term solution. It was reported to the mission that the new Director General enjoys the general trust of the media community.

The current government should swiftly propose a new mechanism which will guarantee adequate and stable funding for RTVS, free of political pressures and overseen by an independent body. A public consultation involving the broadcaster should also be organised. After the next general election, political parties should commit to reforming the selection process of the public media’s Director General and its oversight body to further increase RTVS’ independence. By doing so, political leaders should be inspired by good practice and the positive elements of the European Commission’s proposed European Media Freedom Act.

Protection against abusive lawsuits and access to information

We welcome the commitment by the government to implement the European Commission’s recommendation against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and to support the proposed anti-SLAPP Directive. We call on all parties to follow this lead and pledge similar reforms to tackle vexatious lawsuits at the national level.

We are concerned that defamation remains punishable in Slovakia by a prison sentence of two to eight years. Although such sentences, among the harshest in the EU, are not applied by courts, they allow politicians and businessmen to exercise pressure on journalists. Media continue to be targeted by civil lawsuits with requests for damages of tens of thousands of euros. The Ministry of Justice has proposed to decrease the maximum prison sentence for defamation to one year and – in case of significant damage – to two years. Political parties are called upon to remove altogether prison sentences for defamation and to fully decriminalise defamation.

The legal framework for Freedom of Information (FOI) remains strong overall and among the best in the EU. It is positive that the Amendments to the FOI Act were passed by Parliament in 2022, banning the lawsuits against journalists for publishing information obtained via FOI requests. We welcome the establishment of the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers, urge the government to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive in full, and take all measures to provide maximum protection to all whistleblowers.

The assassination of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová led to sweeping societal and political changes in Slovakia. However, the mastermind of the murder has still not been convicted and the authorities have yet to take all necessary measures to protect journalists and defend independent media. The end of impunity must become a reality and the new political cycle must be turned by political parties into an opportunity to strengthen press freedom.

Signed:

• ARTICLE 19 Europe
• Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
• European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
• European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
• Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
• International Press Institute (IPI)
• Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been jailed for six years for posting on Telegram about a deadly attack by Russian warplanes on a theatre in Ukraine. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) denounce this fierce repression of freedom of expression in Russia and demand the immediate release of the journalist.

Maria Ponomarenko, 44, a correspondent of the RusNews channel on Youtube, was sentenced to six years in prison for critical of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, officials said, as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent. The verdict is the latest in a series of high-profile rulings under new legislation that critics say is designed to criminalise criticism of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

On 15 February, the Leninsky District Court of Barnaul in Siberia found her guilty of spreading alleged “fake news” about Moscow’s army. She was also barred from activities as a journalist for five years. Pomarenko will have “no right to engage in activities related to the administration of websites, public channels of electronic and information and telecommunication networks, including the Internet, for a period of five years,” said the press service of the court.

She was prosecuted for a post on an anonymous Telegram channel, on 17 March 2022, related to an attack on a theatre in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol that came under Russian control after a long siege. Some 1,200 civilians were seeking shelter inside the theatre when it was bombed by Russian fighter jets. Amnesty International said it was a war crime carried out by Russian forces

Prosecutors had requested a jail term of nine years. Ponomarenko was arrested last April 2022 in Saint Petersburg before being transferred to Barnaul.

According to OVD-Info, 138 defendants (including journalists Maria Ponomarenko, Andrey Novashov, Isabella Evloeva, Aleksey Shitik, Evgenia Baltatarova, Alexander Nevzorov, Ruslan Leviev, Michael Naki, Marina Ovsyannikova, Pyotr Verzilov, Andrey Soldatov, Vsevolod Korolyov, Mikhail Afanasiev, Sergei Mikhailov, Dmitry Kolezev, Hristo Grozev, Sergey Reznik, and bloggers Veronika Belotserkovskaya, Ilya Krasilshchik, Islam Belokiev, Sergey Nosov, Alexander Nozdrinov and Alexey Onoshkin) have been prosecuted in Russia under charges of alleged “fakes” about the Russian army.

PODGORICA, 15.02.20223. – At the end of last year, the Government adopted the Report of the Commission for Monitoring the Actions of Competent Authorities in Investigations of Cases of Threats and Violence Against Journalists, which for the first time includes a report on the murder of Duško Jovanović.

Since 2013 and the establishment of the first Commission, the report on the investigation into the murder of Duško Jovanović, the founder and editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Dan, has not been adopted. The first commission, which ended its work in 2015, considered the proposal of its president Nikola Marković‘s report, which, among other things, contained conclusions and recommendations regarding the investigation into the murder of Jovanović, but that report was never adopted.

Jovanović was killed on May 27, 2004. So far, only Damir Mandić from Podgorica has been convicted for that crime, for complicity. The principals, organizers and perpetrators remain unknown.

In the Partial report on the work of the police and the prosecution in the case of the murder of Duško Jovanović, which was prepared by members of the Commission’s working group Nebojša Asanović, Biljana Knežević and Miroslav Turković, two issues that remained unexplained are highlighted.

The first unresolved issue is the purchase of the golf III car from which the murder of Jovanović was later carried out. The vehicle was bought by an unknown person from Veselin Vučeljić, and it is believed that the same person probably later brought the vehicle to Uroš Marčetić for the purpose of tinting the windows.

The Commission’s Report states that Vučeljić and Marčetić described the mentioned person very well and precisely, but that, according to the documents available to the Commission, the investigative authorities did not take any steps to discover this still unknown person. The investigators did not create a photo robot of the mentioned person on the basis of the precise statements of the witnesses, nor did they carry out identification actions, which is a common practice in similar investigations.

The commission also states that in June 2006 the deputy of the VDT Ljiljana Klikovac and the investigative judge of the High Court Radomir Ivanović participated in the hearing of the mentioned witnesses before the High Court in Podgorica. On that occasion, the witness Vučeljić stated that the mentioned person spoke with Vučeljić’s neighbor Ivan Đukić during the purchase of the vehicle. The files available to the Commission do not show that Đukić was questioned at all.

Another issue on which the Commission emphasizes is the official record of the conversation with Damir Mandić, which was made on June 5, 2004.

In a document of the Police Directorate dated February 9, 2006, signed by then director Veselin Veljović, the High Court in Podgorica is informed that “in the PD there is no, nor has a document been officially filed regarding the alleged informational interview with the accused Damir Mandić, on the circumstances of his knowledge related to the murder of Duško Jovanović”. On the other hand, during the main trial before the High Court, on June 21, 2005, Milan Vujanović, the head of the Podgorica Security Center at the time, stated: “After the deprivation of liberty, the accused Damir Mandić was questioned in the premises of the Podgorica Central Court and I remember that he gave some statement about his participation and the participation of other persons in the murder of Duško Jovanović, that an official note was made about that informational conversation, which CB Podgorica will submit to the court upon request”.

It is not stated in the Commission’s report, but Vujanović publicly confirmed again in front of TV cameras in August 2021 that the official note was made during the interrogation of Mandić shortly after the murder of Jovanović, and that he informed the then Supreme State Prosecutor Vesna Medenica about all this, who, according to him, did not react in the right way.

The information of the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office from April 2015 testifies to the fact that the official note exists, which states that during the hearing in March 2014, high-ranking police officials Tihomir Gačević and Branislav Živković confirmed their knowledge that PD officers had made an official note. It follows from their statement that the “team” that was working on the murder investigation was informed about the conversation with Mandić and that an official note was delivered to that “team”. The official note was not recorded, because it was supposed to serve only for internal use, and it was not signed because such instruction came from the “team”, and due to the fact, as stated, that it could not serve as evidence in the proceedings.

High-ranking police officials Gačević and Živković on June 5 2004, made an official note in the premises of CB Podgorica about the informative interview with Mandić, but they did not record it, nor did they enter it into the official records of the Police Directorate in accordance with the law, nor did they submit the official note to the High Court as requested, it is concluded in the report.

The VDT information does not state whether the witnesses testified about what was specifically stated in the note, what Mandić said about his and others’ participation in the murder of Jovanović.

According to the Commission’s assessment, the Higher Prosecutor’s Office did not determine what happened to such an official note, where it is now, why it is not in the case files and why it was not recorded, who ordered it not to be signed, not be recorded, that it should not be in the case file, that it could not be evidence and on what legal basis.

The commission pointed out that it is necessary to answer the following questions: where is the official note, who has it, who was all in the mentioned “team”, who from the “team” gave instructions not to sign the note, according to which legal basis, anyone from the “team” can decide and order the police officer not to sign the official note, who from the “team” gave the instruction and was authorized to decide that the note should not be recorded in the records of the Police Directorate and that can’t be evidence in the proceedings.

The commission also assessed that it is necessary to shed light on the facts related to calling and informing the then prosecutor Novak Ražnatović about the specific event and actions of the police, especially regarding the allegation that he did not come to the hearing of the arrested Mandić at the invitation of the police officers, but only after 10 o’clock and so left the police without instructions and orders from the prosecution. In the Conclusions, it is stated that it should be clarified whether the prosecutor received invitations from some other persons in connection with the event, whether he was prevented from coming due to some other specific event or whether he was not engaged in work at all at that moment, and whether this is illegal behavior of the prosecutor and whether the procedure for determining responsibility was initiated because of this and if not, why.

By answering these questions, many things can certainly be clarified and information can be obtained that can eventually lead to individual organizers, perpetrators and co-perpetrators of this crime, and by further action and establishing possible responsibility for omissions, accidental or intentional, we can at least get answers, which is why after more than 18 years since the murder of Duško Jovanović, the principals, organizers and all perpetrators of that crime still cannot be discovered and prosecuted, concludes the report of the Commission.

Based on the Report, the Commission made eight recommendations. In order to identify a person related to golf III, it is recommended to interrogate Ivan Đukić as a witness, as well as Veselin Vučetić and Uroš Marchetić, with an offer to take a polygraph test. And on the basis of these statements, create a photo robot and perform the action of facial recognition in accordance with the law.

The recommendation is to interrogate Milan Vujanović, the head of CB Podgorica at the time, again regarding the official note, as well as the circumstances of the actions of the prosecutor VDT Novak Ražnatović, and regarding the actions of other competent persons – then leading officials of the police, prosecution and judiciary.

In order to clarify the numerous unknowns surrounding the official note, it was recommended to rehear Branislav Živković and Tihomir Gačević. It was also recommended to interrogate the then director of PD Veselin Veljović regarding the note as well as his findings related to the murder of Jovanović.

Regarding the circumstances of Mandić’s non-appearance at the hearing, the Commission proposes hearing the then VDT prosecutor Novak Ražnatović. Along with the question of whether his leaving the position of the prosecutor and moving to the bar has anything to do with his actions in this case. Polygraph testing was also proposed for all witnesses.

Due to the non-proposition to hearing Ivan Đukić as a witness, the Commission recommended that the acting deputy of the VDT, Ljiljana Klikovac, and the investigating judge of the High Court, Radomir Ivanović, be heard.

As a final recommendation, the Commission states that it is necessary to initiate procedures before the competent state authorities in order to determine all facts and circumstances in order to examine the legality of the procedures and determine the possible responsibility of all officials from the Police Directorate and the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office, and possibly other persons, in connection with their actions in the investigation of the murder of Duško Jovanović.

Now it is up to the state authorities to act on the Commission’s recommendations and to try to get some new information, in order to finally get started on this almost two-decades-long investigation from the dead end.

This article was created through the project “Safety of journalists through judicial practice” implemented by the Media Union of Montenegro (SMCG). The project is supported by the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) within the program “Access to justice and human rights in Montenegro – Trial monitoring project 2021 – 2023” financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration.

The content of the article is the sole responsibility of SMCG and does not necessarily reflect the views of CeMI, the European Union or the Ministry of Public Administration.

Following Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s announcement of changes to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code due to “leaking of information from files”, which create “political problems”, the Croatian Journalists’ Association today sent a complaint to Ombudsman Tena Šimonović Einwalter with the following content:

To the The Ombudswoman of the Republic of Croatia

Subject: Complaint about the announcement of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, on novelizing the law to criminalize the leaking as causing “political problems”

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on Monday, February 13, 2023, after the session of the broader HDZ presidency, that he would amend the Criminal Procedure Act and the Criminal Code to prevent the leakage of information from files and thereby criminalize the creation of “political problems.”

Prime Minister Plenković’s statement, reported by all the media, reads as follows: “Things like this, that leaking things cause political problems to us – this kind of leaks will not happen because it will be a criminal offense.”

N1 https://n1info.hr/vijesti/predsjednistvo-hdz-andrej-plenkovic-13022023/

Slobodna Dalmacija https://slobodnadalmacija.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/plenkovic-najavio-zakonske-izmjene-vise-se-nece-moci-dogoditi-da-cure-stvari-iz-spisa-oporba-vrsi-pritisak-na- dorh-1264519

Tportal https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/plenkovic-koriste-se-neke-poruke-da-se-dovede-u-pitanje-kredibilite-glavne-drzavne-odvjetnice-20230213

The Croatian Journalists’ Association, a professional organization, warns that it is inadmissible to call information published in the media a leak of information, and criminal responsibility for revealing an official secret already exists in the law. There is also an exception for situations in which disclosure of an official secret is in the overriding public interest. What Prime Minister Plenković would change in the laws was impossible to realize from the statement.

Nevertheless, in it, the prime minister calls out the media for creating pressure on the independent action of the State Attorney’s Office in conjunction with “certain officials.” He also assesses that he is the object of hate speech, comparing his position as prime minister to that of the imprisoned Croatian citizens in Zambia. Therefore, it is not difficult to conclude who the prime minister names as the main culprit: journalists and media.

Such public pointing of the finger from the leading state official at the profession crucial for the functioning of democracy is not the first such case. It is repeated every time journalists and the media expose unpleasant truths about the wrongdoing of those in power. We, therefore, consider the amendments to the law announced by the prime minister to be a significant threat to free journalism and the right of journalists to freedom of reporting and access to information guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (Article 38/3).

Sincerely,

Hrvoje Zovko

SARAJEVO, 10.02.2023. – Most of the media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not have any legal acts or protocols related to the protection of journalists within the newsrooms and handling cases of attacks on journalists and other employees. On the other hand, journalists emphasize that the support of their newsrooms in such situations is of crucial importance for them, it was said today during the presentation of the results of the research “Internal capacities and needs of the media in the field of protection and safety of journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, conducted by BH Journalists Association at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.

According to the author of the research, prof.dr.  Zarfa Hrnjić-Kuduzović, the main goal of the research was to examine the sensibility of management – editors and media owners towards journalists who face attacks and pressures.

“It has been shown that the media in BiH mostly don’t have adequate internal mechanisms for the protection of their employees, and that journalists, more than editors, recognize the need to adopt such protocols. We have a lot of positive examples, but unfortunately also those where journalists who experienced attacks, pressures or threats do not have any support from their editors. This most often happens in media that are financed from local and cantonal budgets”, says Zarfa Hrnjić-Kuduzović.

The research was conducted through an online survey in which 116 journalists and other media professionals, as well as editors, directors and owners from 61 media outlets participated. Also, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted with female journalists on the subject of gender equality within newsrooms. About three-quarters of respondents believe that gender equality is represented in newsrooms, but the problem is that only 12% of media outlets have regulations on promotion.

“It’s interesting that journalists generally do not perceive this as a problem. There are no clear gender policies on the promotion of female journalists in the media, as well as protocols on respecting gender equality. Also, a large number of journalists don’t know if there is an internal act in the media where they work regarding their protection and support in cases where their rights are violated and their safety is threatened“, states the author of the research.

Media that are interested in adopting internal documents in the field of employee protection and safety need external help in the form of draft security policies/protocols that they would adapt to their way of functioning, as well as training in this area. According to the general secretary of the BH Journalists Association, Borka Rudić, BH journalists will create security protocols and offer them to the newsrooms.

“From our perspective, it’s very important that the media expressed their willingness to be helped in drafting a protocol for the protection of journalists’ rights. A journalist who has the support of his newsroom will more easily carry out difficult and demanding journalistic tasks”,  concludes Rudić.

The research was conducted within the framework of the regional project “Strengthening media freedom in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia“, which is financed by the Government of the Netherlands through MATRA program, and implemented by the organizations Free Press Unlimited and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee from Amsterdam, together with journalist associations from these three countries.

SARAJEVO, 10.02.2023. – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association strongly condemns the public call of the mayor of Zenica, Fuad Kasumović, to citizens not to pay the RTV tax for the public services Radio-Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) and Radio-Television of the Federation of BiH (RTVFBiH).

During the last session of the City Council, held on Wednesday in Zenica, Kasumović asserted that in the past seven years, since he has been in office as mayor, “not a single positive story has been made” from Zenica on the mentioned public services and he called on the citizens of Zenica not to pay the RTV tax, “just as neither the Čović’s nor the Dodik’s people pay”. Kasumović admitted that he himself doesn’t pay the RTV tax and said that the federal and state public service are “SDA televisions”.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists emphasizes that such statements by Kasumović represent a direct call to disobey the law, which is incompatible with the public position of mayor that he holds. This is not the first time that Kasumović calls for non-payment of RTV tax, as well as labeling journalists and editors of public services whose reporting is not to his liking.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists deems unsubstantiated claims about the editorial policy of the public services BHRT and RTVFBiH as inadmissible, as well as constant attempts to professionally disqualify journalists from Zenica who report critically on the actions of the city government, led by mayor Kasumović. We remind that political pressures on media and journalists-correspondents of public services from Zenica, interference in editorial policy, making a list of “eligible” and “uneligible” journalists, denying the right to access information and public events, are only part of the inappropriate and undemocratic methods of stifling media freedom in this city, which have continued with undiminished ferocity and continuity since 2016.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists calls on the councilors of the City Council of Zenica to publicly distance themselves from the aforementioned statements of mayor Kasumović, aimed at the targeted destruction of the professional integrity of journalists and editors of public services, as well as correspondents of these media from the Zenica-Doboj Canton.