Slovaks in Brussels Pay Tribute to Kuciak and Protest against Government

Brussels, February 21 (TASR-correspondent) - More than 70 Slovaks living in Brussels publicly commemorated the sixth anniversary of the murders of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnírova in Brussels on Wednesday, while at the same time they took the opportunity to protest against the incumbent Slovak government, which, according to them, is undermining democracy and media freedom. The Slovaks from Brussels have joined a series of protests called "For a Decent Slovakia", which are taking place on Wednesday in several Slovak and European cities. This particular protest was organised by a number of students and Slovak nationals working in EU institutions as part of the From Tatra to Schuman platform. Secretary General of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) Ricardo Gutierrez appeared at the event, noting that the EFJ and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) believe that the double murder of February 2018 has gone unpunished. They are closely following the actions of the Slovak government, which, in Gutierrez's view, is committing acts of intimidation against journalists and spreading hate speech against media representatives. Other speakers at the protest included, for instance, former diplomat Magda Vasaryova, former chief architect of the European Commission Peter Benuska, writer living in Brussels Katarina Durica, institutional relations director at a global investment fund Otilia Dhand and Slovak MEP Vladimir Bilcik. Vasaryova told TASR that she regretted that she couldn't take part in a big protest in Bratislava, but she appreciated the fact that senior representatives of the EU institutions came to Brussels to support protests in Slovakia. She also stressed the anniversary of the murder of the journalist. "I am not happy that we've met on this occasion, but I am happy that so many of us are here and that so many of us realise that we must never let this happen again," the former diplomat said. zel/mcs