My anti-corruption activism can be very difficult for many people to understand. Especially for people who are willing to get acquainted only with superficial, fragmented information, judge on the basis of lack of information and refuse to study the issue in more detail. But it is also important to analyze my anti-corruption activism from the point of view of psychology, why it is so difficult to understand.
For many people, it is difficult to understand that the truth can be something other than what public opinion is. For many people, it is difficult to understand how investigative journalists could conceal such serious corruption cases in nature protection, which are larger in scope than the Gorilla case. After all, the media would probably report on it if there was any truth to it.
For many people, it is difficult to understand that Ján Budaj, whom the media portrays as one of the best and most capable politicians, is in fact one of the biggest scoundrels in Slovak politics.
I must openly admit that if I hadn’t seen some absurd things with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.
Another important psychological factor is that, by their very psychological nature, people refuse to hear an unpleasant truth. Every person’s consciousness refuses to accept and process the unpleasant fact that things with the media can be that bad. And they really are that bad.
I am also a big critic of the so-called mainstream media. Mainstream media are criticized mainly by supporters of so-called alternative media, which are financed by the Russian embassy. But I am also a radical critic of the so-called alternative media. I formed a negative opinion of the mainstream media based on direct authentic experiences with them.
I used to believe the media. I believed that when a mainstream journalist declared himself free and that no one was telling him what to write, I thought he was telling the truth. Later, however, there was a very unpleasant awakening when I experienced firsthand what freedom and independence of investigative journalism are in practice.
Aktuality.sk is a very interesting medium. The murdered journalist Ján Kuciak came from there. After the journalist’s murder, Aktuality increased its prestige and credibility with the public, because Aktuality became a symbol of free journalism. So free and independent journalism that it cost one journalist his life. For many people, it is very difficult to understand why I am the biggest critic of Aktuality. For many people, it is psychologically very difficult and challenging to process an extremely unpleasant truth. What is happening at Aktuality is absolutely insane and a normal person would never want to believe it. The situation is worse than a bad dream. I consider the editor-in-chief Petr Bárdy to be an absolutely cynical scoundrel, who used Ján Kuciak for marketing. Bárdy cynically abused the trust in his medium that people gave him after Kuciak’s murder. What Aktuality is doing is a total moral low and that is miles away from free journalism.
For more information, see my articles and videos where I talk about the Aktuality cases in more detail. I will not repeat myself.
When investigative journalists confuse their mission: when instead of fighting corruption, they defend and fight for corrupt individuals. Cases of harassment of anti-corruption activists.
One of the most cynical and hyena-like things that Aktuality has done is to fabricate a scandal against an opposition MP who pointed out several corruption cases and crimes of the BROZ corruption association. I have direct evidence of how the BROZ association bribed Aktuality. Forgive me, but I don’t believe in coincidences. I am personally convinced that the BROZ association used Aktuality to take revenge on the opposition MP for pointing out their crimes. Commissioned articles, which influential lobbying groups order, are unfortunately a common reality. Many journalists have completely betrayed their mission. Instead of pointing out corruption, they often fight for corrupt individuals. Not to mention the open harassment, blackmail, and pillorying of an opposition MP for fighting against corruption. Aktuality.sk engages in mafia-like Kočner-style blackmail practices. Despite the fact that Aktuality fought against Kočner, they themselves engage in his practices.
Investigative journalism in Slovakia is something very special. You fight against some corrupt people and support other corrupt people. It all depends on who bribes whom and who buys whom.
And the case of the opposition MP is not the only instance where journalists have helped thieves and corrupt individuals. In one article full of aggressive and hateful disinformation, journalist Jana Kuvisová of Aktuality.sk openly defends the corruption of the BROZ association. Another case is the case of TANAP director Pavol Majka, where journalist Soňa Mäkká openly defended corruption and openly attacked anti-corruption activists.
For more information, see my articles and videos where I talk about the Aktuality cases in more detail. All information is substantiated.
Corruption in nature conservation: the queen of corruption. An untouchable type of corruption.
No other type of corruption has such support in the media as this one. In the media, we find a lot of criticism of powerful oligarchs, but not of corrupt officials and left-wing extremists in nature conservation. On the other hand, I would not be surprised if some of the more skillful oligarchs, through bribes to journalists, managed to get many media outlets to keep silent about their cases, even though these may be the media outlets that shout the loudest that they are doing free journalism. After my experiences with the media, I really don’t rule anything out anymore.
Oligarchs are well aware that the media has great power, and if they bribe the media, the likelihood of the police investigating them for their crimes will be radically reduced. From the history of the independent Slovak Republic, we know that many big fish ended up in jail only thanks to media pressure.
It is absolutely shocking that despite sending the media about 60 A4 pages describing corruption in nature protection, plus about another 15 hours of lectures, only about 5% of it appeared in the media. Not to mention that disinformation on the topic of corruption and left-wing extremism in nature protection prevails over serious analyses and information. This is clear evidence that something is wrong with the Slovak media. And this is despite the fact that the Slovak media have a diverse ownership structure.
In my experience with the media, it looks like some kind of conspiracy, as if all the media had one hidden owner who dictates what the media can and cannot write about, or as if there was some hidden shadow government that would order all the media what they have and what they are not allowed to do. I’m not saying these conspiracies are true, but the end effect is the same as if these conspiracies were true.
Every journalist should reflect on what they could do to improve this situation. The media lacks real personalities. Personally, I think that no media outlet welcomes honest investigative journalism, but there would be some media outlets that would at least tolerate an honest investigative journalist. It’s not just about media owners and editors-in-chief, but also about each journalist individually.
I can imagine that the media owned by Jaroslav Haščák or Andrej Babiš will not exactly welcome investigative journalism, because investigative journalism cost them their freedom, but on the other hand, I can imagine that such a journalist would at least be tolerated. The Slovak Economic Newspaper is owned by Andrej Babiš.
I was particularly interested in an article by Jakub Fila, deputy editor-in-chief of the daily SME, in which he responded to a press release from the Ministry of the Environment about the decreasing number of bears, specifically on the topic of bear counting. On the one hand, it was clear that the journalist had put a lot of effort into it; it was a surprisingly high-quality article, and he must have studied the issue for several days. On the other hand, he forgot to mention the topic of corruption, that the EU funds for bear counting had been embezzled. It’s as if there’s an unwritten rule that the media is still somehow barely tolerated to criticize the ministry’s policy, but they are forbidden to talk about corruption. Even Budaj himself admitted to corruption with the counting, blaming his predecessor, but no journalist had the courage to report that there was theft at the ministry. I don’t believe that journalist Fila wouldn’t have noticed the topic of corruption when he put so much work into writing the article. It seems too conspicuous and too strange to me that he avoided the topic of corruption.
In general, I have noticed that journalists are willing to criticize Budaj here and there for some minor things, but they avoid the topic of corruption.
Absolute impunity can be observed in the case of the BROZ association. I sent the media about 15 really big scandals about this association, but they couldn’t even manage to write a single article about them. There can be no talk of freedom and independence of the media here. No journalist can explain to me how they could remain silent about such serious scandals, unless it’s because the editors-in-chief accepted bribes.
At first, I believed the media and really assumed that they were interested in the public interest, that journalists would receive such serious information about corruption with great gratitude. Of course, I was very naive. Investigative journalists did not even show gratitude for the fact that I selflessly did a huge amount of work for them in my free time.
If investigative journalists were truly free and truly independent, they would have found out 10 times more information than I did and would have gathered enough evidence to put the main actors of the corrupt left-wing extremists in nature protection in jail for at least 8 years.
When journalism completely loses its meaning: that is, to inform
The way the media treated Ján Budaj is a complete disaster. They mostly supported his policies. The role of journalists is to check whether a politician is lying. However, the media deliberately did not carry out this check with Budaj and pretended not to see anything, spreading disinformation further. But such a great scoundrel as Ján Budaj certainly did not deserve such media protection. Budaj lied practically always and everywhere. When Budaj lied about a more complex professional issue, the journalists could at least make the excuse that they were not experts in the field, so they had no reason not to spread Budaj’s disinformation further and no reason to oppose his lies.
Our expert community refers to Budaj as a generator of lies. He has become too accustomed to lying, and sometimes his lies get out of control, such as defending himself by saying that “a bear is a vegetarian,” or when cooperating with the ŠtB, he argued that the ŠtB agents were such imbecilic fools who couldn’t count two plus two, and who were willing to help him escape across the border a second time by issuing him a passport. He also defended his cooperation with the ŠtB by saying that he cooperated with them because he didn’t want to shoot the ŠtB agents. Even a person with a significantly below-average IQ wouldn’t believe such nonsense from Budaj.
Budaj spread equally absurd schizoid lies about nature protection throughout his term in office.
Disinformation about Budaj and nature protection is a vicious circle. Journalists have come to believe their own lies. Journalists have become victims of their own lies.
Financing state nature conservation through bribes
It is publicly known that the State Nature Protection (ŠOP) is partly financed from private sources, which is extremely controversial because it is a bribe. Even the BROZ association slipped up on its FB page and admitted to financing ŠOP. Filing a criminal complaint for such unfair practices would probably be useless, because BROZ’s lawyers would know what to do. They would try to argue that it does not meet the definition of a bribe.
What is it all about? When BROZ or other similar associations or organizations receive EU subsidies, BROZ sends part of these funds to the SNC as a thank you for assisting with projects. This is an official payment to the SNC account. The payment is probably also included in the official accounting of the SNC. I call it a “legalized” bribe, or an officialized bribe. It should not be forgotten that all SNC employees are officials who make serious decisions. They are public officials. The SNC is not a state-owned company. From a moral point of view, it is clearly a bribe. SNC employees feel extremely indebted to a private association if they receive financial rewards from them.
It is extremely controversial for any public officials to receive dubious payments and financial rewards from any private institutions. It always creates a conflict of interest. The Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic is an absolutely rotten institution with absolute corruption. Every expert will confirm this to you, not just me. No other state office accepts such strange payments as the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic.
After Budaj’s “reform”, all National Parks and Protected Landscape Areas will have legal personality, i.e. independent financing, independent management, i.e. a separate bank account. Bribing employees of the Nature Conservation Agency will be far more direct and effective.
The seriousness of the situation
However, only a few journalists realize the seriousness of the situation.
Probably few people would like it if we gave unlimited power to the most radical neo-Nazis in Slovakia over the Roma settlements.
Well, a similar problem arose with national parks. National parks are de facto managed by far-left extremists who consider a forest eaten by bark beetles with a disintegrated ecosystem to be the most valuable. National parks were handed over to extremist destroyers.
Every person who loves nature will feel heartbroken by what is happening under the banner of the scoundrel Ján Budaj, who is controlled by the dangerous fools he has surrounded himself with.
The silence of journalists is reprehensible. Only they can do something about this desperate situation.