The Fourth Estate that is no more

The pillaging of the media that began soon after the coming to power of democratic fraudsters in October 2000 has not contributed to their survival, freedom or professionalism, despite what many people had hoped for. On the contrary, we can say that Slobodan Milosevic dealt them a mortal blow, while those who came after him finished them off in a cowardly manner. In this sense, no improvement has resulted from the sale of some of the media to foreigners – who, as could be expected, bought media outlets with largest coverage, circulation and regional significance. Among the targeted media outlets were the newspapers Politika, Vecernje Novosti and Dnevnik from Novi Sad. Soon thereafter, foreign investors usually realized who they were dealing with.

When it comes to "the oldest newspaper in the Balkans" (Politika), which sounds as boring as The Old Lady of Turin (Juventus), it all began in 2002 when the then-Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic agreed with Bodo Hombach that German WAZ ( Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung) should purchase a half of the company located in Makedonska Street in Belgrade. A former journalist from the daily newspaper (who had previously worked for Borba, Nasa Borba and Danas), Ivan Torov, says that it was hoped at the time that "the German partner would stimulate expansion of the newspaper via new investments", but that it soon turned out that "the model of ownership and management has become the limiting factor". What could be expected in a situation where the founder, the state and the German investor had equal ownership shares, while at the same time the state secured the right to edit the newspaper and appoint the editor-in-chief. It is difficult to understand why someone would buy 50 percent in such a newspaper without any intention to have influence on its editorial policy. This relationship resulted in the newspaper again becoming "a strong tool of Kostunica's nationalist optics" (Torov), especially after the assassination of the prime minister (the country's political and criminal leaders!). Later, the newspaper experienced a lack of direction, resulting in professional and financial ruin. The Germans finally realized that promotion of a policy that cannot being profit would not allow their investment to pay off.

The situation is even more complicated when it comes to Vecernje Novosti. Relatively late (in autumn 2006), the newspaper was put on auction. Representatives of WAZ, together with Milan Beko and Miroslav Miskovic, signed a contract with Stanko Subotic's company "Senta". They purchased the majority stocks of small stockholders of the newspaper for the amount of 14 million euros (a third of the sum was paid by Milan Beko's "Stadlux", together with a disputed million euros from Miroslav Miskovic), while it was agreed that the parties to the contract should decide among themselves who owns what. Via his companies ("Ardos", "Trimaks" and "Karamat"), Beko owned 64.2 percent, while two years later, Subotic, as well as "Ost Holding" (WAZ) and "Stadlux" (Beko) in December 2008, withdrew from ownership. In this way, the latter was appointed as "the manager of activities" that were supposed to be specified in a subsequent annex. However, the annex has never been signed. Later, legislation was adopted stipulating that owners are obliged to sell all their stocks that exceed 25 percent of ownership, or otherwise be stripped off of their "voting rights" above this percentage level. Milan Beko has not fulfilled this obligation, his companies are being treated as foreign companies and the Committee for Securities does not have a legal basis for initiation of legal proceedings against him. The entire share of belonging to the German investor has been disputed, but after the failed purchase via the most powerful man in this daily newspaper – his editor-in-chief, Manojlo Vukotic – the situation has developed in both political and judicial directions. WAZ is also affected. The company's former point man for the Balkans claims that it is headed by two conflicting families, while the main mediator for Serbia (Hombach) wants to receive pay for his activities in Serbia before the end of his term in office.

What about Dnevnik? During the autumn of 2003, after various political and labor-related developments, the Assembly of Vojvodina (its founder) gave its support to the Contract on Strategic Partnership between the German media company and Dnevnik. In the new company ("Dnevnik Vojvodina Press"), 55 percent of managing rights was supposed to belong to the Esen-based company, with the Province of Vojvodina ("Holding Dnevnik") having the remaining 45 percent. Soon after Serbia decided to get rid of the German buyer, WAZ offered the company to purchase its 55 percent of founding rights, but the Province rejected the offer because it did not want to write off a part of the company's debt. Dinko Gruhonjic and Nedim Sejdinovic from the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), who have a reputation of being very well-informed and reliable sources of information, claim that WAZ had received a hint that it should withdraw that came from the country's leadership, and that Germans decided to leave mostly because "they have not received any assistance from the state, despite the fact that they had timely paid all their legal obligations toward the state".

In the case of Dnevnik, the German investor has gained an insight into our willingness to adhere to obligations resulting from agreed and signed contracts, as well as into the inadequate efficacy of our judiciary. According to the Commercial Court in Novi Sad, the company "Dnevnik Vojvodina Press" is not the rightful owner of the trademark right that belongs to "Dnevnik Holding", together with publishing rights... This situation will drag on until the German concern decides to withdraw and file a complaint with the International Court. Our country has been defeated in most of the proceedings initiated before the Court and forced to pay penalties, but the public is insufficiently informed about this fact. The media usually report statements similar to the ("patriotic") one made by the editor-in-chief of Vecernje Novosti, who has not yet revealed how much money he received/should have received for his mediation. He justifies himself by saying that he is sorry to ever having met Hombach and that he is only trying to protect Serbian national interest. At the same time, "Dnevnik", which used to be a large company and a newspaper with significant circulation, has been utterly provincialized and now sells only 7,000 copies per issue.

Why has the issue of WAZ acquisition of ownership shares in these newspapers been raised again? By the end of the last year, a member of parliament and a renowned journalist, Zoran Ostojic, started a debate about the three newspapers because of alleged behind-the-scenes dealings. Ostojic claims that "people from the top levels of state authorities" intend to use the Kurir newspaper to buy the stocks that the German company owns in these three newspapers and thereby increase the media blackout before the elections scheduled for spring. There has also been a mention of a certain drug dealer from Sarajevo ("who spent more time in prison than in the editorial office") for the purpose of making the Rodic's company, Kurir, look like a saviour.

In his appearance on "RTS II" (i.e. TV B92), Zoran Ostojic said that people close to the country's authorities were behind Kurir. "We are talking about Dusan Bjelopetrovic, who worked as an advisor in the Ministry of Justice, as well as Slobodan Homen. During his last visit to Belgrade, the representative from WAZ met with a minister from the Government of Serbia who is in no way connected with the media. We have heard that he visited the Ministry of Agriculture – which could be considered comical if it was not dangerous." The state secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Slobodan Homen, and the minister of agriculture and trade, Dusan Petrovic (who is a lawyer from the city of Sabac), are allegedly behind all this. Mr. Bjelopetrovic is the personal friend of the owner of Kurir, Aleksandar Rodic, and a close friend of Slobodan Homen...

Everyone who believes that our media (especially newspapers) should resemble those in developed and democratic countries should have a better look at our government, ministers, education system, Church, the Army, the police, the Academy of Sciences, judiciary, economy, publishing... Everything is stagnant and the media is no exception. Recently a young colleague writing for a newspaper called on the public to assist in eviction of an elderly gentleman and no one has reacted. This is a usual occurrence in the country where newspapers mostly "report" on fights between politicians aimed at distracting and deceiving the public, and publish pictures of "celebrities". At the same time, people are having fun and waiting for Europe to fall apart...

Dragan Banjac

About the authors

MC Newsletter,
January 13, 2012