The murder of Kuciak was an attack on the media as such, he says
In the interview, there was also a Thursday verdict of a Slovak court, which decided on the innocence of the controversial businessman Marián Kočner in the case of the murder of Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kušnírová. Jour admitted that she was surprised by the verdict, but she respects him.
“It simply came to my notice then. “I personally spoke to the parents of the two tragically murdered people, and I know that the expectation that justice would turn out for those who caused it was very strong,” she explained.
He sees Kuciak’s assassination as “an attack on journalists and the media as such.” According to her, the European Commission intends to protect journalists, for example by opening some shelters for journalists who are in danger.
She also stated that eighty percent of Slovaks do not trust judges in their homeland. “There are black sheep in every country, people who have nothing to do there. People who tend to be corrupt or not do work responsibly. ”She said the European Union was working to help reform justice.
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Assessment of the rule of law for all countries
Jour recalled that the European Commission was finalizing a comprehensive report on the rule of law, covering all 27 EU countries. “Democracy must be worked on constantly, on the rule of law as well,” she said. It reacted to the conclusions of the American non-governmental organization Freedom House, which stated for the first time this year that Hungary is no longer a democratic regime.
According to Jourová, it is not possible to agree with the statement of the Hungarian Prime Minister, who stated that the local democracy is in a better condition than, for example, the German one. “I am seeing several negative trends in Hungary: the issue of the media, the issue of civil service, space for civil society. There is an accumulation of so many negative factors, “she described.
In the past, Hungary tended to respond to criticism from European politicians with so-called whataboutism, ie pointing to similar problems in another member state. Jour said the Commission was trying to prevent this by sending a report to all EU countries and urging them to contradict the facts by 9 September. “We want to play a fair game,” she added.
According to the EU, closing borders for everyone except the V4 is not right
The European Commission then does not like that Hungary closed the borders for everyone except the Visegrad countries, and addressed Budapest for an explanation. “It was agreed that the criteria for closing and opening borders will be purely epidemiological, that it will not be who is from which state. Let’s imagine that Germany would be preserved in this way and said that they like the Netherlands and Belgium, so they will let them go and they will close it to the Czech side, “she added.
According to Jourová, the Commission is now preparing to coordinate border closures, as it does not want the situation from the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to be repeated in Europe. “We will now re-recommend certain rules so that there is no second wave of uncoordinated, surprising and rapid border closures,” she said. At the same time, she added that she expected the will of individual member states to participate in mutual communication.
She pointed out that the situation today cannot be compared with the situation in the region of the crisis. “In March, I had an understanding for it, because in the states it was a burden to take care of people’s health. But now we are instructed in many ways. We are instructed that this uncoordinated has caused really big problems, “she said.
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