RTVS broadcaster Marta Jančkárová received threats. (source: TASR)
Following the most recent two editions of the Sobotné Dialógy (Saturday Dialogues) political debates, public service broadcaster RTVS presenter Marta Jančkárová received threats of death, torture, rape and more via e-mail and phone.
RTVS decided not to publish the contents of the threats due to their hateful and vulgar nature, but the SITA news agency published the threats on February 27.
NAKA initiates investigation
In a statement, the broadcaster said that, "In an e-mail written in an exceptionally aggressive and vulgar manner, unknown persons threaten Marta Jančkárová with death, torture, rape, physical harm to her family members, etc."
On Sunday, the police stated that the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) started investigation into the matter.
Jančkárová received the first e-mail and phone threats after the February 18 airing of Sobotné Dialógy with Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová. Further threats came after the February 25 edition, when RTVS refused to allow Smer MP Ľuboš Blaha to participate. He had shown up uninvited instead of Smer MP and chair of the foreign affairs parliamentary committee Marián Kéry.
Kéry was invited to discuss the war in Ukraine with interim Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď (OĽaNO).
Blaha is known to spread Russian disinformation on Telegram. Last year, Facebook cancelled his profile.
RTVS says the refusal to allow Blaha on air was on the grounds that political parties cannot change guests invited by the broadcaster on their own. RTVS itself decides who is invited, in accordance with the law. The seat in the debate does not belong to a party, but to a particular guest, states RTVS, and adds that there is no room to talk about censorship.
The broadcaster also calls attention to the possible link between the threats to Jančkárová, and an increasing level of aggression in public discourse and the spread of hate towards journalists.
Parties against threats
The opposition SaS party has called on the opposition Smer-SD party to apologise publicly.
"The threats directed at RTVS and its host just because they refused to play Smer's game are unacceptable. [Smer leader] Robert Fico, Ľuboš Blaha and all of Smer are fully responsible for these attacks," stated SaS chair Richard Sulík.
The non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia party also condemned the threats, political attacks and vulgar anonymous e-mails faced by journalists. "Such practices have no place in a liberal democracy, especially not in a country that has undergone the trauma of a journalist's murder," said PS leader and EP Vice-President Michal Šimecka.
Hlas party leader Peter Pellegrini said that, "Forcing someone to be on a TV show who is not invited is not the right thing to do, in my opinion. Should I tell you the truth? I think this was staged," said Pellegrini, adding that Smer representatives may have known in advance what would happen and how to use it for their purposes.
