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| Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová |
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| journalist Pavla Holcová |
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| Prime Minister Robert Fico |
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| Fico with Tibor Gašpar (left) and Robert Kaliňák (right) |
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| Ján Kuciak's home |
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| Prime Minister Robert Fico |
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| Fico with Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák |
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| Kaliňák, Tibor Gašpar, and Robert Fico |
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| police chief Tibor Gašpar |
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| shooter Miroslav Marček |
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| collaborator Tomáš Szabó |
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| Marián Kočner |
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| Alena Zsuzsová |
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| Alena Zsuzsová |
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| Miroslav Marček reenacting the shooting |
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| Marián Kočner |
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| parents of Ján Kuciak |
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| Pavla Holcová |
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| Director Matt Sarnecki |
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| Sarnecki with Pavla Holcová |
THE KILLING OF A JOURNALIST B+ Czech Republic United States Denmark (100 mi) 2022 d: Matt Sarnecki
Something evil is under the surface. Something evil is in the very fundamentals of our state. —Slovakian President Andrej Kiska, 2018
Much in the same vein as Alexander Nanau’s Collective (Colectiv) (2019), a groundbreaking portrait exposing a corrupt Romanian political regime, this is Slovakia’s answer to major corruption revelations at the highest levels of government, discovering a web of organized crime, oligarch power, and a political mafia enmeshed in every corner of the country, with the film receiving a standing ovation after the European premiere in Karlovy Vary. Directed by U.S. journalist Matt Sarnecki, a senior producer for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project - OCCRP, he spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania beginning in 2004, making Bucharest his home since 2013, while also making an earlier documentary Killing Pavel about the murder of investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet, whose reporting antagonized Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, killed by a car bomb placed under the seat of his car in 2016. Expanding on a similar theme, this film began as an investigation of the brutal murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, who were planning to get married in three months, both just 27-years old, but were shot by a 9mm handgun on February 21, 2018 in a home they had just recently purchased, the first-ever targeted killing of a journalist in Slovakia since their independence in 1993. Martina’s laptop was left open at the scene of the crime indicating she had been looking at wedding dresses. Kuciak was self-taught but highly effective at sifting through financial numbers for clues to corruption, working for the news website Aktuality.sk where he wrote about corruption and organized tax fraud that involved people connected to the ruling political party, much of it focused on combative millionaire businessman Marián Kočner. Before he was killed, he had been investigating the influence of the mafia in the Slovakian government. The murders shocked outraged citizens, who just a week afterwards protested on the streets of Bratislava, spreading a week later to protests in 48 cities in Slovakia and 17 cities worldwide, making it the largest demonstration since the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism in 1989, subsequently leading to multiple resignations and arrests, becoming the largest murder investigation in the nation’s history. When police failed to meaningfully investigate the murder, it was journalists that mobilized the public, blaming the police and ruling government for allowing such an appalling murder to happen, ignoring death threats made by Kočner against Kuciak and his family, forcing the young journalist to investigate what the police routinely ignored, while journalists tried to cope with the traumatic event by giving meaning to it, spreading Ján Kuciak ́s legacy, which this film certainly does, working together to finish his last article and publish it in various domestic and international media outlets, while intensely covering the trial with its startling revelations. The film includes interviews with Kuciak’s fellow journalists and family members as well as police investigators, lawyers, and witnesses, utilizing a significant amount of archival footage from the case files, including police interrogations and court depositions. The sadly despairing music of Danish composer Kristian Eidnes Andersen provides a moody counterpoint to this unraveling exposé of a nation in turmoil, 'The Killing of a Journalist' — an OCCRP Documentary ... YouTube (2:35). An urgent reminder of the risks journalists take, according to a data base from the Committee to Protect Journalists, 2074 journalists around the world were killed between 1992 and 2020 (List of journalists killed), most in countries like Iraq, Syria, the Philippines, and Somalia, while murders of journalists in Europe are more of a rare occurrence. What’s perhaps most surprising is that these murders did not occur in a dangerous region or war zone. Slovakia is a small country with a relatively limited media market, where only a handful of outlets, just the most widely read dailies, even engage in investigative journalism, so the community of investigative journalists is so small that they all know each other well, becoming friends and colleagues that often work together on assignments.
Czech investigative journalist Pavla Holcová provides much of the commentary, reappearing from time to time, recounting her own personal experiences, yet one of the biggest outcomes since the murder was that journalists started cooperating more closely, sharing resources and expertise, instead of competing against one another. Perhaps the best example is what’s commonly known as the Kočner Library, a police leak of about 70 terabytes of material collected by police while investigating the murders, including files over a period of six years from Marián Kočner’s two personal phones and home computer where he kept damning evidence of blackmail, extortion, and bribery. Due to the instability of the government following a series of high profile resignations, and perhaps believing this damning evidence might fall into the wrong hands or even disappear altogether, this vast treasure trove of data was sent to Holcová, who provided a special workplace, a small room in an anonymous location in Bratislava, providing extraordinary access where accredited journalists and analysts could sift through the massive data and analyze them, exposing unheard of levels of deceit and conspiracy, where investigative stories soon reached millions in both Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Despite putting up brave fronts, seen in confrontational press conferences, one by one the existing political leaders fell in a domino effect, first Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák, followed by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and finally the head of the police Tibor Gašpar all resigned. Top police officials resigned as well, while charges of corruption and obstruction of justice were brought against 21 judges, leaving a judicial system in shambles, basically a tool serving the interests of a few wealthy criminals. The film paints a chilling portrait of Slovak businessman Marián Kočner, a nefarious figure who ultimately becomes the centerpiece of the film, dissected with a rare investigative scrutiny, viewed as the embodiment of evil where draconian mafia practices are the norm, spending the majority of time examining the full extent of his corrupt influence where threats and coercion are the norm. The extraordinary data obtained by reporters includes encrypted discussions between Kočner and his associates in which he discusses assassination attempts through code words and tells judges how to render verdicts in important court cases. Remarkably, we even see footage of Kočner and politicians setting up spy cams to record fellow judges, lawyers, and politicians, providing a blueprint of how corruption works, revealing just how entrenched he was in all levels of government for such a long period of time, resorting to blackmail, corruption, and personal connections with pliant prosecutors, judges, and well-placed insiders, with organized crime having free reign within the police department. His success paints an unflattering picture of the justice system in a country that has often been touted as the poster child for a successful transition from communist rule to European rule of law. Kočner’s influence wasn’t limited to top prosecutors and judges, as one of his most powerful friends was Norbert Bödör, a former MMA fighter and son of the head of a well-connected private security company that made a fortune due to its close connections with Slovakia’s ruling party. Prime Minister Robert Fico was known to attend the company’s Christmas parties while in office. Reporters obtained thousands of messages Kočner and Bödör exchanged in 2017 and 2018, texting each other at least several times a week, discussing sensitive matters such as ongoing police investigations. Bödör gave Kočner access to police databases that he used to obtain personal information about his enemies, including journalists like Kuciak. Bödör was later arrested for suspected money laundering and organized crime, accused of managing a network of corrupt police officials.
Kočner’s techniques for maintaining his influence went beyond bribery, perfecting the art of extortion, as one of his most essential allies was his lover, Alena Zsuzsová, buying her expensive cars and luxury vacations. Data obtained from one of Kočner’s phones shows that over a period of years Zsuzsová initiated flirtatious Facebook conversations with people of interest to the businessman, collecting dirt and obtaining compromising information about high-level politicians, prosecutors, and lawyers for Kočner’s benefit. Her mode of operation was to send her targets photographs of naked models with her face photoshopped onto their bodies, while requesting images in return, which could be used to blackmail those who complied, such as the deputy speaker of parliament, sending a picture with the parliamentary insignia. She passed those photos to Kočner, sometimes accompanied by unflattering and even derogatory comments, revealing the depths of their own relationship, as she would do anything for Kočner. After the murders, the police started investigating the tax fraud cases initiated by Kuciak, leading to the criminal prosecution of Kočner who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for forging $75 million worth of promissory notes to siphon money from a private media outlet he was attempting to gain control over. While imprisoned, the police thoroughly searched his residence, leading to the material collected in the Kočner Library, which included surveillance footage of Kuciak and his residence, shot by Peter Tóth, former head of the Slovak Information Service and a friend of Kočner, who testified in court that he, at Kočner's request, organized a surveillance team that followed Kuciak, took photographs, and recorded footage not only of his home but also establishing his daily routines. This footage is positively chilling, some of the last images of the couple alive, even following them into the parking lot after grocery shopping, where there is no conceivable reason to collect this kind of footage unless there is a malicious intent to commit a burglary or a murder. Subsequently, 7-months after the murders, the police arrest Zoltán Andruskó, a local pizzeria operator, Tomáš Szabó, a former police investigator, and Miroslav Marček, a former soldier. Andruskó tells police that he had been approached by Alena Zsuzsová, who had offered him €70 000 (€50 000 in cash and €20 000 in debt forgiveness) in exchange for killing Kuciak. Zsuzsová had, in turn, been hired by Marian Kočner, though both denied any involvement in the murders. Andruskó, on the other hand, admitted to ordering the murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Marček confessed to shooting both Kuciak and Kušnírová and astonishingly recreates the murder at the scene of the crime for the court before being sentenced to 25 years in prison, while his cousin Tomáš Szabó, was also sentenced to 25 years for participating in the murder. The trial extensively reveals the scandalous contents of Kočner’s secret files, including phone recordings with various officials, leading to the discovery of decades-old corruption networks involving the police chief, high-ranking bureaucrats, and the prime minister himself, so it was something of a shock verdict that Kočner was found not guilty of ordering the murder. Kočner and Zsuzsová's acquittal was later overturned by the Supreme Court and a retrial was ordered for 2022, with judges expected to take into account evidence that was excluded from the first round of proceedings. At times heartbreaking, this is a gripping and carefully researched documentary, holding a special fascination throughout, revealing how everyone was fooled into believing the nation was a thriving democracy and a shining success story for the European Union. A stark reminder of the essential role journalists play in a free society, among the commentators is the editor-in-chief of Aktuality.sk, Peter Bárdy, Kuciak’s former boss, who assesses the damage, suggesting the promise of an open democratic society in Slovakia is not easily achieved, as those extensive criminal networks have not disappeared, but have instead reconfigured into other disguises, typifying the unique difficulties Eastern European countries have in overcoming their longstanding ties to communism and the unlimited power of authoritarian rule.
