Journalist Karolína Brodníčková from Novinky receives threatening calls from Russian-speaking man
An unknown Russian-speaking man has been threatening Novinky website editor Karolína Brodníčková since August. Prague police and prosecutors from Prague 4 are investigating the case.
Anonymous threatening calls targeting Novinky editor, police investigating case
Since mid-August, journalist Karolína Brodníčková, editor at news website Novinky, has been receiving threatening telephone calls from an unknown Russian-speaking man. According to iROZHLAS.cz, the man called several times a day and suggested that the journalist faced physical danger. Brodníčková recorded the calls and reported the matter to police.
She first picked up the phone on 19 August — the other end was silent. The man spoke for the first time on 24 August. "He spoke Russian, then asked me if I wanted to speak German. I hung up," the journalist described. The anonymous caller then called repeatedly until the end of August, then there was a break. In mid-September he called again. "Because I don't speak Russian, I asked him to repeat his words in English. He told me that I know what they do, and I will find out what they will do to me," Brodníčková described, and she managed to record this call.
A criminal complaint was filed not only by the journalist herself, but also by publishing company Borgis, under which Novinky operates. "We consider the threat very serious and are taking measures to ensure the protection of Karolína Brodníčková and other employees," said Borgis a.s. board chairman Vladimír Dušánek.
Prague police confirmed the case. "I can confirm that we are investigating a possible threat to a journalist," said spokeswoman Eva Kropáčová. Prosecutors from Prague 4 are also dealing with the case. "After reviewing and assessing the content of the submission, the state prosecutor will decide on the next steps," said Prague Municipal State Prosecutor's Office spokesman Aleš Cimbala.
Who is behind the calls?
The source of the threats remains unclear. Karel Randák, former director of civil intelligence at ÚZSI, sees the probability of two scenarios as roughly balanced. "The threats could be the independent initiative of a deranged individual, or someone could have hired such a person. I would see the probability of both scenarios as fifty-fifty," said Randák. He also noted that finding a Russian-speaking person willing to cause harm is not difficult today. "A Russian who would have the inclination to harm or disrupt someone can be found for payment fairly easily these days."
Pavol Szalai, director of Reporters Without Borders' Prague office, does not rule out a foreign origin of the attack. "Russian and Chinese actors regularly intimidate journalists in Europe, and we expect democratic states to protect them properly in this regard. When it comes to influence operations from abroad, Russia and China carry them out routinely," said Szalai. At the same time, he emphasised that direct threatening telephone calls are exceptional in the Czech environment. "This type of direct threatening in telephone calls occurs in the Czech Republic rarely, which is why I would take it all the more seriously."
Political scientist and extremism expert Miroslav Mareš points to the psychological dimension of repeated calls. "Repeated calling is a systematic form of pressure. It could be someone who has decided to target the journalist and is amusing themselves in this way," Mareš explained.
Brodníčková as a target of attacks
Brodníčková has long focused on domestic politics, particularly on the financing of political parties and non-profit organisations. Because of her work, she is repeatedly targeted by attacks from politicians. When she wrote about adviser to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Natália Vachatová, whose brother does business in Russia — which some experts consider a security risk — the Prime Minister called her report a disgusting campaign.
A year ago, the journalist dealt with police over verbal attacks from the leader of the Enough! movement Daniel Sterzik, known as Vidlák, after publishing material about this group. He publicly criticised her and threatened her with legal action, as did then-Senator Marek Hilšer after she highlighted the operations of his movement Marek Hilšer for Senate, which was primarily used to obtain state subsidies. However, Brodníčková had not previously experienced anonymous threatening telephone calls.
Experts warn of escalation
Lawyer Klára Kalibová, founder of In IUSTITIA and expert on pre-trial violence, assesses the situation as serious. "Journalists have an absolute right to live in safety. This seems very serious to me, and I would certainly not underestimate such behaviour and it is necessary to defend oneself against it."
Szalai warns of the structural background to such attacks. "Threats or harassment are in the vast majority of cases motivated attacks on journalists by politicians. They do not realise that they are playing with fire. They are releasing a genie from the bottle, which could lead to physical attacks," said the head of Reporters Without Borders' Prague office. Since the beginning of the year, the organisation has recorded 33 cases of political pressure on media in the Czech Republic, with 27 of these being direct attacks by politicians on journalists.
The risk of escalation is also pointed out by former Slovak Prime Minister and sociologist Iveta Radičová. "Verbal aggression can inevitably lead to physical violence. Because verbal aggression will at some point prove ineffective," said Radičová, who is dean of the Faculty of Mass Media at the Paneuropean University and has herself experienced similar threats. "And verbal aggression one day ends in a physical attack." She cites Slovakia as a cautionary example — investigative journalist Ján Kuciak was murdered because of his work, along with his fiancée Martina Kušnírová. In May 2024 there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico.
On Monday, approximately forty editors-in-chief of Czech media outlets published a joint message calling on politicians to reject violence and ensure free access to information. A general increase in aggressiveness was also confirmed by top state prosecutor Lenka Bradáčová. "As a state prosecutor's office, we are observing a general trend of increasing aggression and radicalisation, which is not limited to certain professional groups but is reflected in mutual communication," said Bradáčová.
Source: iROZHLAS.cz