The Killing of a Journalist

• Date: 11 December 18:30 - 21:00
• Location: Nieuwspoort

We screen the film The Killing of a Journalist (Matt Sarnecki, 2022). When an investigative journalist and his fiancée are brutally murdered and Slovak police fail to question the prime suspect, a leaked dossier reveals rampant corruption and protests for justice erupt.

Guests include Opaka Christopher Arop and Luis Carlos Díaz. The moderator will be announced soon. The screening is in Slovak with English subtitles. The post-screening discussion will be in English.

About the film
On the night of Feb. 21, 2018, investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová, both just 27 years old, were brutally murdered in their home. It was the first targeted killing of a journalist in Slovakia's history, and shocked citizens protested on a scale not seen since the fall of communism. Kuciak was known for his reporting on questionable financial ties between politicians and "elite" business tycoons, most notably millionaire Marián Kocner.

When police failed to thoroughly investigate the prime suspect, journalists mobilized the public. Leaked files, Kuciak's posthumous reports and public outcry led to scandalous discoveries of decades-old corruption networks involving Kocner and the police chief, senior bureaucrats and the prime minister himself.

About the guests
Opoka Christopher Arop
Opoka Christopher is a journalist, writer and activist. He was born in what was then South Sudan. He first came to the Netherlands as a guest of Shelter City and now lives in Utrecht. He continues to participate in research projects related to financial and human rights abuse in South Sudan, and also helps coordinate the rescue and redeployment of fellow journalists.

Luis Carlos Díaz
Luis Carlos Díaz is a Venezuelan-Spanish journalist and human rights defender. He serves on the Board of Directors of the organization Transparencia Venezuela and the NGO platform Sinergia. He is a communications strategy consultant for human rights organizations. He has taught and lectured in more than 20 countries. He is the author and co-author of 9 books on technologies and politics in Venezuela. In 2020, he and his wife Naky Soto received the Sophie Scholl Award from the German Embassy. In 2019, he was considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. He works as a presenter on the Unión Radio network.

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