Jan Kuciak was an investigative journalist for the Slovak news site Aktuality.sk. He was found dead along with his girlfriend in his house outside Bratislava on 21 February 2018.

The police have stated that the murders are likely connected to Kuciak's work. His work had focused on fraud cases, and at the time of his death he was working on a story involving businessmen with connections to Slovakia’s ruling party and other politicians.

Detained and interrogated

On 15 May 2018, Slovakia’s National Crime Agency seized a mobile phone belonging to investigative journalist Pavla Holcova, who works for the Czech Center for Investigative Reporting.

Holcova, who had been working with Jan Kuciak and IRPI on behalf of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) when Kuciak was murdered, was invited by the Slovak police for what she believed was a friendly interview to aid the investigation into the murder of her colleague.

However, the police detained and interrogated her for over eight hours. The interrogation was outside the scope of the murder investigation, as the police made comments during the interrogation suggesting that Holcova's professional history was "always against the system."

Furthermore, the authorities had already obtained a prosecutor’s order to seize Holcova's phone, implying this was their intention from the outset.

What's on your phone?

The Slovak police were indeed primarily interested in Holcova's reporting of the murder, internal communication between Holcova and her colleagues, the intentions of other media reporting the issue, and other information not pertinent to the investigation.

The police asked Holcova directly about her phone and threatened to fine her 1,650 euros if she did not cooperate.

Holcova then voluntarily showed the police a few messages and told them she would send them all conversations with Jan Kuciak. To this, the police replied that they were not interested in the conversations, but wanted the messages that Holcova had recorded since the murder.

At that point, three police officers entered the room with a mobile forensic unit and tried to download information from Holcova's phone. When this failed to work, the police pressured Holcova into handing over the phone.

Her phone contained no information relevant to the investigation that OCCRP had not already voluntarily offered to the Slovak authorities.

Appeal for justice

With the second murder of a journalist in Europe in less than six months, it is clear that urgent action must be taken to ensure the protection of civil society in the exercise of fundamental rights.

The right of access to information is an essential tool for combating corruption, for investigating violations of human rights and for protecting the rule of law.

We condemn any action taken by public authorities that endangers those who exercise this right.

We therefore support OCCRP and IRPI that demand that Slovak police return the phone to Holcova. The actions of the National Crime Agency are hostile and seem to point to an investigation of reporters and not the murder of Jan Kuciak. While this behavior might occur in captured states and autocratic regimes, it does not belong in Europe.

Sources: https://www.occrp.org/en/62-press-releases/8084-sl... and https://irpi.eu/en/slovak-police-must-return-seize...