Report So They Cannot Avert Their Eyes

Michael Hedges February 28, 2021 - Follow on Twitter

Violence against media workers follows clear patterns. Critical reporting is met with retribution. Corrupt individuals seek to silence forever those who would uncover their deeds. The power of office, they believe, must not be impinged by reporters’ prying eyes. Outrage, when it appears, can be quelled and disappears over time. Impunity reigns. Journalism cowers.

Three losses from the journalistic tribe in recent months attracted worldwide attention and condemnation. Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese independent investigative reporter, was killed in a car bombing in October 2017. Jan Kuciak, an investigative journalist, and his fiancé Martina Kusnirova were shot to death in their home near Bratislava, Slovakia in February 2018. Jamal Khashoggi, a writer and Washington Post columnist, was murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018. Other media workers lost their lives in violent criminal acts related to their work through this period, most receiving little notice outside the immediate vicinity.

Long investigations followed these murders, including from international agencies. In all three implicated individuals were detained, several thereafter released, as inquiries took their course. European Union members Malta and Slovakia, small by population, saw major demonstrations enveloping cities to vocalize disgust. The issue of corruption, generally acknowledged, turned people to the streets. This was not the case in either Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

Malta police authorities this past week (February 23) reached a guilty plea agreement with Vincent Muscat, among three persons suspected of triggering the car bomb that killed Ms Caruana Galizia. He will offer prosecutors additional information, reported Times of Malta (February 23), in return for a 15-year prison sentence and paying €42,930 in court expenses. Two other suspects in the bombing held to their not-guilty pleas. Later that day, three Maltese mobsters were arrested for supplying the bomb based on information provided by Mr. Muscat. They had previously been arrested and released in 2017.

A fourth person, Yorgen Fenech, remains in custody for complicity, which he denies. He made a few headlines in November 2019 being busted by police after hopping onto his yacht to beat a get-away. His dodgy business dealings had been subjects of Ms Caruana Galizia’s reporting. Prime Minister Robert Abela and Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa announced (February 24) that the investigations had come to an end. But, as these things go, the daily drip of revelations continues, include alleged complicity of prominent politician Chris Cardona in the murder-for-hire, reported by Maltese online news portal Newsbook (February 26).

Investigations into the murders of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, which resulted in three convictions and two acquittals last year, ran into considerable political resistance. Former prime minister Robert Fico at one point attempted to link massive public demonstrations - the “biggest protests in Slovakia since the Velvet Revolution of 1989,” noted Balkan Insights (August 5, 2020) - over the murders to political opponents and even philanthropist George Soros, often vilified by the most dodgy of politicians. Mr. Fico finally resigned but not without negotiating to name a successor and remain head of his political party SMER SD.

The alleged mastermind of the murders, Marian Kocner, was one of those acquitted despite accumulated evidence. Jan Kuciak had been investigating Mr. Kochner’s illegal business dealings as well as associations with prominent politicians of the SMER SD political party. Mr. Kocner remains behind bars, the Slovak Supreme Court (January 12) affirming conviction and sentencing in a separate forgery case. His associate in the murder-for-hire scheme, Alina Zsuzsová, was convicted in December of a different murder and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Making headlines during at least one news cycle this past week was the public release of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assessment of the circumstances in the death of Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA completed its report last year but then-president Donald Trump withheld its release for certain reasons. Current US President Joe Biden ordered the four-page report summary declassified and released. And it was (February 25).

Investigations into Jamal Khashoggi’s murder began rather quickly. Turkish prosecutors had volumes of information, including recordings of the victim screaming “I can’t breath” before Saudi experts removed his head. Other gristly details came from Turkish sources, like the victim’s fingers gifted to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salmon. But, Turkish authorities were hesitant to release conclusions over concerns about diplomatic tribulations. On the other hand, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has, as they say in the business, the pictures.

Saudi authorities went through a series of denials, exculpations and fantasies. Several persons were arrested, sentenced and pardoned. Diplomatic sources called it the worst public relations ever.

Unconcerned with that bit was the June 2019 report from United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Agnes Callamard. She called it “a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated.” The conclusion called for “"investigation of high-level Saudi officials' individual liability, including the Crown Prince’s."

The three murderous events differed in several ways. There was pure corruption, intended impunity and political intrigue. Through all of it - separately and together - news organizations have not let up. It’s not much relief, but a little.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Corruption

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom