Journalists in Slovakia continue to be threatened, a poll shows

Verbal attacks are most common.

Journalists during a press conference.Journalists during a press conference. (Source: Sme - Marko Erd)

Five years after the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, journalists in Slovakia continue facing various threats.

The latest AKO poll, published by the Ján Kuciak Investigative Journalism Centre on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the killings, has revealed that two out of three Slovak journalists, 66.2 percent, have been threatened in the past 12 months.

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On the other hand, 65 percent think their employers do enough to protect them.

As many as 400 journalists filled out the centre’s online survey between November 2022 and January 2023. More than 80 percent work in national media, 16 percent in regional and local media, and 3 percent in international newsrooms.

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Most of those who took part in the survey are convinced that the number of incidents against journalists has increased over the past five years or is the same as five years ago.

The most frequent incident in the last 12 months was a verbal attack, either in person or online.

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