And germanys foreign and defense ministries are hit with a cyber attack reportedly launched by Russian Hackers the same group is false who have previously attacked the German Parliament and the Us Democratic party. And babs no more the International Olympic committee lifts is stoping ban on russia so does this mean the world is ready to trust russian powerful leads in competition again. Im brian thomas a very warm welcome to the show we start out this program in slovakia where the murder of a young investigative journalist has sparked protests in the capital brought a small about a thousand people turned out for a march organized by the conservative Opposition Party to on. Reporter. And protest against political corruption a twenty seven year old was shot dead outside his home last week alongside his fiance. While the news website he worked for has published his last unfinished article hours after it hit the web its explosive claims triggered fallout at the very highest level of government well go live to prague after this report. Journalist ian could see x. Final story was the most explosive in his short career it may also have cost him his life if the story details alleged links between the Italian Mafia and officials working in the Prime Ministers office. It was published by his colleagues days after the bodies of and his fiance Martina Kristen over were found in their bratislava home. Ninety nine percent convinced that the murder is connected with his writings about a link between Italian Mafia and slovakian politics. Could see a story name two officials who have now resigned pending an investigation one of them maria told a score over a chief advisor to the Prime Minister another really uncertain chair of the state Security Department both have denied any link to the killings Prime Minister robert fitz so seen here with us culver has cautioned against judging the pair without evidence hes offered a reward of one Million Euros for information about the murders slovakias culture minister also resigned ashamed that Something Like this could happen in his country for the. Culture minister i cant deal with the fact that the journalist was killed during my term in office. In brussels european parliamentarians held a minute of silence to honor the journalists. The truth with determination and didnt answer to anyone. The police to clear that he was almost surely killed to stop his investigation. Incased could see ex grieving supporters want his work to be continued they marched in bratislava demanding safety for journalists and an end to corruption could see acts reporting may now have more impact on slovakia than he could have ever imagined. Is that too optimistic or will his reporting continue on slovakias political corruption joining us now from soccers capital rosalba is a bottle of a shes the editor in chief of the countrys biggest daily newspapers marathon so much for being with us this morning at this time in our countrys history weve now seen resignations from the Prime Ministers office what is in yon could c. X. Article published after his death thats shaking up this country. He uncovered a network off company said i eat bill who will have to drag these companies over the past the have been i just want to say to you i got to if i could jump in the dragon to being the Italian Mafia ok if you could continue a place. And they have been accessing e. U. Funding worth millions of euros so these people now have worth really like millions of euros and they were close to beatle who really work at the Governmental Office as your report masha and mr yes and hes had the ing the sec you really cant see off of this country and hes accessing like top secret information and it opens up the question how is it possible that he got security clearing and it really makes us journalists ask like r. V. A safe country for security pleadings are even to people who have these close ties to you to mafia he also pointed that yes continue please continue he asked yeah he also pointed that at the fact that that these these are not completely new information and even Prime Minister fits a confirm that that the first story for example of my my daily put out at the dont bring anything what he shocked him completely but it means that these questions have been put on that they bill for a for a while and he hasnt given clear answers and since monday the are waiting for his answers and and we havent been given these answers crockery flying like what theyre all of these people are how how is it possible that they have been hired for the job they are doing with these these background ok is that pressure going to continue from your newspaper on the Prime Ministers office on robert feed so that top politicians have possibly been working with the drug eight or the Italian Mafia. Yes we will continue asking questions and that was our man for young that even accompanied not only the story but all the stories and all the information he looked into like reveal really continue and trying to do finish his work today at the doors of the chiefs in chiefs of the most critical media are meeting we have a meaning and well discuss how to continue and how to make sure that the finish his recording and not let you know to be silenced work here really started out so we will continue asking questions and i dont think that the resignation of these two people from the government of this solves the problem its only like the first step its a symbolic us that and the Prime Minister cannot saw the issue simply by the fact that that they step down and i think that also up yes sorry yeah go ahead barbara finishers office. I think also public pressure will continue there will be an other rally on friday i myself will speak and other journalists will speak out and they will really stress the importance of critical reporting critical journalistic voice for maintaining Democratic Institutions in the country go over energy for the countrys biggest newspaper sonera thank you so very much and and good luck to you with your investigation thank you. Its to the us now and i will miss having her by my side those are the words of american President Donald Trump paying tribute to his Outgoing Communications director opecs hicks was the fourth person to head trumps Communication Team and hers is the latest in a string of high profile departures from the white house excess a resignation has nothing to do with testimony she gave to gresham battle probing russian meddling in the twenty sixteen president ial election on tuesday. Lets go now to washington and did a view correspondent carolyn and carolyn what was behind hope picks unexpected departure. Well i hope a resignation Communications Director can really all of us have in here in washington but this is still just an announcement from the white house here except departure is going to be said sometime in the next few weeks but of course this comes in a time where he was making a lot of headlines here because she deny to speak to the press about her role in russia investigation and then of course concede then to leave the an ounce ment of her resignation happens after she testified for nine hours in the House Committee of intelligence so one could assume that these two incidents the testimony and the resignation are in no way linked to each other but this is only an assumption the official statement of president says that it took this decision because she is pursuing other opportunities also the white house is sure that this was not related to her testimony but also to put this in context this may also might be true because according to the latest reports that i have from here from from washington this was not a big surprise to her colleagues in the white house shes a person who always wanted to stay behind the scenes and here in washington d. C. This was impossible so apparently she hated the city and she never really made her home ok well she didnt stay behind the scenes when she told the House Intelligence Panel that she told quote white lawyers present trump because those statements have personal implications for. Well one of the consequences of having said that is precisely a president apparently got angry at hicks after learning as she had made it on to say to the House Committee that she. Also if she defined this only as a white lies and this is important because its not any comment he were talking about the House Committee of intelligence which is investigating russias meddling into the thousand and sixteen election the Company Panel is investigating contacts between Trumps Campaign and russia but there are no further details yet about the role. Could have played in the russian meddling. Ok now he was somewhat unconventional press secretary if you come to play so its a prominent role in the president s inner circle. Well yes the interesting thing about hicks is that she she was not a celebrity which is quite unusual considering that she was one of the close advisors and longest serving eight she also wasnt related at all to politics she got this job by way of. Before that she had worked for a p. R. Agency making war. Fashion line and before that she was a model so this is indeed quite unusual early more for us in washington this morning thanks very much gary. Now for some of the other stories making news this hour students have been returning to the Florida High School that was the side of a mass shooting this comes two weeks after a former pupil used an assault style rifle to kill seventeen people there that incident has the tense of americas the bait over gun control with a new push for measures to limit access to weapons. Ceremonies in south korea have been commemorating the start of the Korean Movement for independence from japanese colonial rule. President spoke at an event in seoul and urged them to confront and apologize for wartime wrongdoing such as forcing women into sexual slave. Tempers flaring during a televised russian president ial debate among president Vladimir Putins seven challengers opposition candidate. Kenzie subject dowsing arrival was water after insulting her putin who set too easily when a fourth term did not take part in that debate. Here in germany Government Computers have been hit in a cyber attack berlin says a Hacking Group infiltrated both the foreign and defense ministries and sources are saying a Hacking Group with alleged links to the russian government called a. P. T twenty eight broke into the Government Network officials are trying to determine the exact extent of the breach the attacks were apparently discovered in december but are only made public now. What is germanys strategy when dealing with difficult partners like russia lots of confidential information on that topic flows through the Foreign Ministry in berlin. Now the government has confirmed that hackers breached the Foreign Ministrys data network though its not clear which data they targeted or whether it was sensitive. It is clear that this problem of Cyber Attacks on Critical Infrastructure by unfriendly states and powers is a really serious security problem we have to improve significantly in the syria. In twenty fifteen hackers infiltrated the network of the German Parliament at the time it was thought to be the work of Russian Hackers who siphoned off data from the offices of german lawmakers back then germanys federal office for security said that the m. P. s network wasnt linked to that of the parliament and was therefore not as well protected as the ministries but hackers have now found holes in the Ministries Network suggesting that the attack was likely highly professional the German Interior Ministry has called for calm saying that it was an isolated attack but theres been criticism over the governments Cyber Security policy. I think that Cyber Security is neglected in the Coalition Agreement and i think it will be a key topic for us in the coming years. Theres a blind spot that we have to fill urgently where we have to step up our game and where all our attention must go. The interior Ministry Says the incident will be treated as high priority and designed significant resources. Well will those resources cover up that blind spot our security correspondent bob involved mark is with us now actually very serious situation interior ministry confirming the bridge saying the situation is under control what exactly are authorities doing well first of all they have to contain this fire is now this they have to see the full extent how deep actually these hackers went into the Data Networks of the government we always have to bear in mind that what were talking about is basically the heart of the i. T. Infrastructure of germany this is the network that is used to communicate between the different ministries in germany so this is a very different very Important Network and yeah of course authorities do everything as the Ministry Said they put this as high priority high prio priority and pull all the resources in there ok so communications between the defense and foreign ministries was potentially compromised you know and that over a period of one year you have to ask yourself how is that possible. Yes of course this is it could have happened or it could have started already a year ago when you talked to authorities in the Cyber Defense they also often talk about the potential of time bombs so that sometimes hackers place where in the system but that doesnt start functioning right away it might be in the system without actually extracting for example data that might happen a lot later so this could be one example explanation but still it was discovered in december and. Why was the public informed only now three months after it was discovered ok reheard there are Security Experts admitting that germany has a blind spot you know considering the apparent level of sophistication that Russian Hackers have it is germany prepared to confront that type of professionalism. The simple answers obviously not otherwise this couldnt have happened but then you have to ask yourself these attacks happened in very highly capable countries in europe also in the United States so who is really prepared to deal with these highly sophisticated attacks from russia russia puts a lot of effort in these groups a lot of know how but also a lot of resources in terms of time and money so these are very sophisticated compare come pains but then also i mean there is criticism that germany is not doing enough particularly since the attack on the bundestag there was a lot of effort put in germany on Cyber Security on the security and Cyber Defense but this to do more not enough was done maybe and theres also the human factor all of these attacks mostly also go go along with behavior of people that are not prepared and this is on top of the problems in the systems thanks so much for that of daters security correspondent fabienne funded mark. Well the relations between germany and russia may be strained but commercial links have actually become stronger and that ironically despite years of sanctions against russia christophe youre looking into that thats right bryan and there is the pressure growing to relax these sanctions that will certainly be a topic at the conference of the German Russian Chamber of commerce which is taking place in berlin today with high level political and business representatives in attendance trade between russia and germany is increasing again and sharply last year germany exported goods worth a total of nine to nineteen point seven billion euros to russia some twenty five percent on twenty sixteen russia was able to boost its exports to germany by twenty percent to twenty one billion euros now germany remains a vital partner to the russian economy it is the second largest trade partner of the country and thats despite the sanctions imposed against russia almost four years ago after its an exemption of the Crimean Peninsula now the sale of weapons to russia is banned as is the export of dual use technologies which are civilian by nature but can also be used for military purposes exports of Energy Related technologies and equipment to russia are subject to license and on top of that e. U. Lenders are not allowed to give loans to russias five largest st