Investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend were murdered during the past weekend in Velka Maca, a town near Bratislava. According to the police, the murders could be related to Kuciak’s journalistic work. We strongly condemn this attack on freedom of expression and media and call for an immediate investigation.

Kuciak, who was working for news portal Aktuality.sk, published his last article on 9 February and reported about the suspected tax fraud in connection to a luxury apartment complex in Bratislava.

He was a member of New media network, an informal network of journalists, representatives of government institutions, bloggers, media lawyers, academics, artists, IT experts and internet activists from Southeastern and Central Europe, gathered by OSCE Mission to Serbia, Office of the OSCE Representative on Media Freedom, SHARE Foundation and Center for Media, Data and Society at the School of Public Policy, Central European University in Budapest.  

Jan Kuciak previously worked for Slovak newspaper Hospodarske Noviny and collaborated with weekly Tyzden. He also collaborated on several transnational investigations. As a postgraduate student at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, he was examining conditions for watchdog and investigative journalism in Slovakia in comparison with other Central European countries.

26 February 2018

New media network

OSCE Mission to Serbia

Office of the OSCE Representative on Media Freedom

SHARE Foundation

Center for Media, Data and Society at the School of Public Policy, Central European University in Budapest