BRATISLAVA, November 22, (WEBNOVINY) — Reporters of the daily PRAVDA were wiretapped because they allegedly participated in criminal activities, said the director of the Military Counterintelligence Service (VOS) working within the Defense Ministry Pavol Brychta who was questioned on Tuesday by the Parliamentary Committee Overseeing Activities of the Military Counterintelligence Service. The committee chairman Peter Ziga (SMER-SD) told a news briefing that the journalists who were wiretapped or eavesdropping devices were deployed to monitor them, took part in leaking sensitive information from the Defense Ministry. The director of the TA3 news channel Michal Gucik was wiretapped for alleged economic criminal activities, Ziga cited Brychta as saying. The MPs however did not learn how the wiretapped journalists participated in the mentioned illegal activities. “I do not know, we have not seen the file, it is hard to take a stance on it,” said Ziga. According to him, Defense Minister Lubomir Galko who was questioned by the committee before Brychta told the committee that he does not know whether the journalists were wiretapped.
The committee will make an inquiry at the Military Counterintelligence Service about the wiretapping. “We have not learned what we wanted to learn, the answers were not concrete. We believe that at the inquiry on site we will learn more, that we will be given access to files,“ said Ziga as, according to him, they are entitled to it in line with the law. He said that after questioning of Defense Minister Lubomir Galko and counterintelligence chief Pavol Brychta, they still do not know whether concrete persons were wiretapped and whether the wiretapping was lawful or illegal. “We can believe or not statements of the minister and the head of the service, concluded Ziga.
The dailies PRAVDA and NOVY CAS reported at the week’s start that PRAVDA’s three reporters had been wiretapped by the military counterintelligence. NOVY CAS wrote that the phone of the director of the TV news channel TA3 had also been tapped. The daily wrote it has access to transcripts of the phone conversations made by the service. According to PRAVDA, the alleged wiretapping was stopped after the recent collapse of the government. After the scandal surfaced minister Galko swore to resign if it turns out that the wiretapping was done illegally. However, of ex-coalition parties only his SaS stands by him.
SITA