EU must respond to the threat to investigative journalism
Protection of journalists
In response to the recent murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, the European Parliament has today backed a resolution on the protection of investigative journalists in Europe.
The resolution calls for:
- the Commission to create a permanent financial scheme to support independent investigative journalism
- an investigation of the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová under the co-lead of Europol
- an investigation of the cases that Ján Kuciak was working on by the competent national and EU authorities
Greens/EFA transparency spokesperson Benedek Jávor comments:
"The murder of Ján Kuciak is a sign of the increasingly perilous situation that those working to cast light on abuse of power find themselves in. A thriving democracy relies on investigative journalism. But that requires funding. To sustain the work of people like Ján Kuciak and Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Commission should create a permanent fund to support investigative journalism.
"Ján Kuciak's work revealed misuse of CAP funds and potential corruption. The Commission must make sure that the controls on the use of these funds are much more effective, both at Member State and EU level.
"The inquiry into the murders of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová has to be beyond reproach. To remove any doubts regarding the transparency of the investigation, Europol should be given shared responsibility."
