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Shortly after beginning his fourth term as prime minister last fall, Fico and his government ceased communicating with four respected independent media outlets that he deemed hostile, including TV Markza the nations most-watched station, with a 27 percent market share as well as the dailies Dennk N and SME andthe news site Aktuality.

Ficos return to power has been accompanied by an open assault on independent media, according to Mat Kostoln, editor-in-chief of Dennk N.

Since the first day after the election he has attacked journalists, calling us rats Fico has always attacked journalists, but now he is taking an even harder line, calling us his enemies and committing the entire government to doing the same, Kostoln said.

In 2018, investigative journalist Jn Kuciak and his fiance Martina Kunrov were murdered, sparking the largest protests in the country since the 1989 fall of the Communist regime and leading to Ficos resignation as PM, mid-way through his third term.

According to Kostoln, the tragedy has steeled Slovakias journalists to fight state oppression all the harder.

Slovakia still has plenty of independent media and courageous journalists, but Fico is trying very hard to silence them and intimidate them, Kostoln said. Having had the experience we did in the 1990s under [then Prime Minister Vladimr] Meiar, I believe were better prepared now than our colleagues in Hungary, for example.

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Slovakia's Fico plots to dismantle the free press - POLITICO Europe