THE STATE might have to pay as much as €750,000 in compensation to Michal Gučík, the former general director of TV news channel TA3, whose name appeared in a wiretapping case which occurred under the last government. If his case succeeds the money will be paid from the state budget, the Plus Jeden Deň (PJD) daily reported.
Gučík filed a complaint with the Defence Ministry in which he claims that the case, in which the Military Defence Intelligence (VOS) recorded the conversations of several journalists, resulted in him losing his job at TA3.
“The publishing of information about his person very negatively interfered with his civic honour and privacy,” reads the complaint.
At the moment the ministry is checking whether Gučík is entitled to compensation, Milan Vanga from the ministry’s press department told PJD.
“I am not dealing with it [the complaint], but the lawyers are,” Gučík told PJD, adding that he considers it “absolutely abnormal” for someone to be bugged and observed, and for false information to then be written about them.
Gučík also said that he does not care who is guilty in the case, which erupted in November 2011 and resulted in the dismissal of then defence minister Ľubomír Galko.
Gučík promised to give any compensation he receives to charity, PJD wrote.
