Slovakia's defence minister fired over bugging of journalists

The Interception of journalists’ telephone calls by the Defence Ministry’s counterintelligence arm has cost the defence minister, Lubomir Galko, his job. However, as the wiretapping scandal unfolded, it became known that one of the journalists targeted was monitored by the Defence Intelligence Agency (VOS) as far back as 2007. The wiretapped journalists included the head of the TV news channel TA3 and two senior Defence Ministry employees, according to leaked documents obtained by Slovak media outlets. “The whole story of wiretapping which is being uncovered today was also going on under previous governments,” said Prime Minister Iveta Radičová, who on November 22 asked President Ivan Gašparovič to dismiss Galko. “It is high time to reach an agreement and an initiative over control mechanisms for the intelligence services.” Radičová said it is now obvious that the “intelligence services have been doing everything possible – except what they were originally intended to do and what is their main role”, according to the SITA newswire.

More on this story in the Slovak Spectator (in English)
http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/44621/2/defence_minister_fired_over_bugging_of_journalists_updated.html