TASR: We Condemn Murder of Jan Kuciak as Attack on Democracy

Bratislava, February 26 (TASR) – Young journalist and our former colleague from the Teraz.sk website Jan Kuciak along with his partner Martina Kusnirova have become the victims of premeditated murder in their own house. Such a crime is heinous, incomprehensible and absolutely unacceptable regardless of its motive.

If it is confirmed that the murderer’s motive was linked to the investigative work of the journalist, this also constitutes a malicious attack on the very foundations of democracy and freedom of speech in Slovakia. We would like to send our deepest condolences to both families afflicted by this terrible tragedy.

We hope that the law enforcement bodies will be able to exert maximum efforts in order to hunt down and convict the perpetrators.

This is the first time in history that Slovak society has been confronted with such a brutal assault against representatives of the press. It is imperative, therefore, to respond accordingly, not only to convict the murderers but also to send out a signal for the future that such brutality has no place in Slovakia.