Fico and Sobotka

Czech TV's Newsroom media program devoted 15 minutes last night to the death of Slovak reporter Ján Kuciak and to other lesser forms of attacks on journalists, and then it spent several minutes attacking Czech journalist Petr Žantovský for contributing to Parlamentní listy and for being elected to the ČTK Council. Such double standards have become commonplace in certain Czech media outlets. Self-proclaimed liberal journalists, mainly those working for or trained by Czech TV and Zdeněk Bakala, are using Kuciak's death to blame reporters and politicians who don't share their point of view for creating the hostile media and political environment. In reality this a thinly veiled continuation of the long-running war between ČSSD a.s. and Agrofert a.s. It's a dangerous game, because the more Slovak PM Robert Fico is accused by his rivals at home of being involved with organized crime, the more he looks like his fellow social democrat, Bohuslav Sobotka.