BRATISLAVA, March 1, (WEBNOVINY) — Journalist Tom Nicholson has been overstretched after the Gorilla case broke out. As a freelancer, he cannot go on like this for a long time and will soon have to begin making a living by another work. These are the main reasons why the political fairness watchdog group Fair Play Alliance decided to organize financial support for the Canadian-Slovak investigative journalist. People who want Nicholson to continue pursuing the Gorilla case can send their contributions directly to the journalist’s account, Zuzana Wienk from the alliance informed.
Wienk does not have confidence in the official investigation of the Gorilla case. “I am personally very concerned about the outcome of the investigation. According to my knowledge of how the police works and under what political pressure it is, I do not trust the prosecutor’s office with its current leadership either and I am also displeased with the fact that the president is reluctant to appoint a legitimately elected prosecutor general,” Wienk told SITA news agency and added that those were the factors necessitating the presence of a man who would monitor the investigation in Slovakia. She believes that Nicholson is the right person for such task thanks to his insight.
Nicholson accepted the idea of financial support under the condition of absolute transparency and clear terms. He will use EUR 2,000 from the accepted donations, which is how much he earned when he worked, for his personal needs without documenting the use of the sources. He would discuss other expenses (for example motor fuel for travel, phone bills for investigative needs) with Fair Play Alliance which will examine their appropriateness and draw up a quarterly report. The alliance pledges that the bank account announced to the public call is really the bank account of Tom Nicholson.
If the journalist receives from people more money than he needs, he considers establishment of a civic association that would monitor and report ties between politicians and political nominees on the one hand and financial groups and sponsors on the other. Nicholson will write a blog informing on his findings and developments in the case and its investigation once a week.
The Fair Play Alliance came up with the initiative two weeks ago. “We only know so far that over 300 people joined the initiative on Facebook and also people not connected to social networks have sent him money. This is a good and encouraging piece of news for me,” added Wienk.
SITA