Tom Nicholson - author - page 6 - The Slovak Spectator

Tom Nicholson

Tom Nicholson has been with The Slovak Spectator since 1997. He was appointed editor-in-chief in 1998, and publisher in 2001. After taking a leave from the paper from 2002 to 2004, he rejoined it as publisher and as editor of the SPEX magazine. In March 2007 he left the Spectator to lead an investigative program at the SME daily paper. He continues to cooperate with the Spectator. He holds a master’s degree in history from Queen’s University in Canada, and has worked for the Whig Standard and National Post dailies in that country.

List of author's articles, page 6

Taking one for the team

Slovak politics in 2015 eerily resembles the tumultuous pre-1998 election period, with rumblings of an opposition coalition that could again dramatically alter the shape of the next government.

Tom Nicholson

Borbély was wrong

GANGSTER’S confidence that image would shield him from reality suggests disturbing truths about the Slovak justice system.

Tom Nicholson

Will Černák state the truth?

WHAT Mikuláš Černák has experienced is not a change of heart so much as a change of mind.

Tom Nicholson

Star EU stinks, but not to police

Striking success of company linked to Czech lobbyist in winning EU tenders goes unexplained after charges dismissed.

Tom Nicholson

Who needs guns when we have the “férovka“?

Gun ownership has reached a record figure, but Slovaks have better ways of solving disputes.

Tom Nicholson

Slovakia failing its troubled children

Fear and ignorance of suicide among teenagers is preventing us from helping them.

Tom Nicholson

What we won’t see this election year

Rarely has a Slovak parliamentary election been less interesting.

Tom Nicholson

KDH at 25? More a funeral than a celebration

Christian Democrats never found a way to wed pragmatism with inspiration.

Tom Nicholson

Global scandals are old news in Slovakia

Three recent international scandals highlight the need for Slovakia to retain individual intelligence capacity.

Tom Nicholson

Remembering Vasil Biľak for who he was

RTVS story on former communist functionary was not only tasteless, it was a classic example of bad journalism.

Tom Nicholson

Waiting rooms are full of patients, illustrative stock photo

How to clean up hospitals

MIDDLEMEN with their commissions do bigger harm than doctors who accept gifts.

Tom Nicholson

A plebiscite of true national importance

Interior Minister Kaliňák was right to refuse to reduce the success quorum on referenda, but the real problem is too many unsatisfied political egos.

Tom Nicholson

FCKIT indeed: Enough of arrogant politicians

Three years after the Gorilla file was published, right-wing politicians continue to prove they aren’t ready to govern.

Tom Nicholson

A rough year ahead for Fico

THE YEAR leading up to elections in Slovakia is always especially fascinating as party sponsors shed their remaining inhibitions and ransack public coffers before the music ends.

Tom Nicholson

Mafia on the ropes: Now for politicians and oligarchs

POLICE, prosecutors and courts deserve kudos for cutting the comb of the Slovak mafia. But will we ever see an equally effective campaign against true organized crime among our white-collar leaders?

Tom Nicholson

Economy Minister Pavlis has to go

No one with such an obvious conflict of interest has any place in government.

Tom Nicholson

Under the fire: Ernest and the tycoons

AT A SMALL Christmas gathering two years ago, I offered to teach English to Ernest Valko. As much as I detest teaching, the balance of favours performed between us had tipped so far in his direction that I was embarrassed. “Yes,” he drawled in his execrable accent. “I will be your student.”

Tom Nicholson

A skinhead faces riot police in central Bratislava.

Gay Pride was a success, says MEP

MARIJA Cornelissen, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, was on the stage at Saturday’s Gay Pride rally in Bratislava when a stone thrown by an onlooker narrowly missed her colleague, Ulrike Lunacek. The Slovak Spectator (TSS): In what capacity were you attending the rally? Marija Cornelissen (MC): I was there as a member of the European Parliament. Ulrike and I are members of the parliament’s LGBT rights intergroup, and we try to divide the gay prides between us, especially the threatened ones, so that everywhere there’s someone on hand to show support. TSS: What is it about Gay Pride events in eastern Europe that makes them threatened? MC: It has to do with conservative societies. In many of these countries religion plays a role, in that it’s worse if the population is more religious. TSS: Have you had similar experiences to what happened in Bratislava elsewhere? MC: Something similar happened on a slightly larger scale in Vilnius (on May 8), with the tear gas and the police separating Pride and counter-protesters. In Moldova the Pride march didn’t even happen, because the mayor got the courts to ban it. TSS: You were on stage in Bratislava when the rock was thrown at Ulrike Lunacek. Were you scared? MC: I was standing right next to her. She ducked and it missed her by a few centimetres. But to tell you the truth, it was a small stone, and at worst Ulrike might have had a cut over her eyebrow. What threw me more was the tear gas. There were children in the audience when the tear-gas canister came down, and having people right in there [the crowd] with us means that security was lax.

Tom Nicholson

Diplomat “disgusted” with anti-gay “thugs”

SEVENTEEN foreign embassies in Slovakia issued a joint statement supporting Bratislava’s Gay Pride in the leadup to Saturday May 22 march.

Tom Nicholson

Bohumil Hanzel, pictured when he was a Smer MP

Smer founder speaks out

ONE OF the co-founders of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer party is claiming that secret deals were signed by the party with off-the-books sponsors ahead of the 2002 parliamentary election to guarantee these individuals state posts and other benefits in return for multi-million crown gifts.

Tom Nicholson

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