Media business results

The public service broadcasting role is realized by public broadcasting companies at the republic and provincial level, while their funding is provided via collection of a TV fee, envisions the Draft Strategy for Development of the Sysem of Public Informing Until 2016.
(Kurir, 05/06/2011)

Around 100 employees and former employees of Politika protested in front of the company building in support of their 30 colleagues whom the management intends to dismiss from work. During the last four years, the number of employed journalists and media workers has been reduced by 800. The participants of the protest called on the government to appoint managers who would contribute to economic revival and preservation of the company reputation.
(Beta, Pravda, Danas, 25/05/2011)

The representative of the state capital in the Managing Board and the Assembly of Stockholders of the Politika Newspapers and Magazines company, Jovan Simic, said to the Tanjug news agency that the company used to have a slightly larger circulation with 600 employees than it has now, but also a loss amounting to 7.5 million euros. The company now has 350 employees and a slightly lower circulation, but has achieved profit in the amount of six million euros.
(Tanjug, Politika, 25/05/2011)

Privatization and public media outlets

The Commission for Protection of Competition will decide by mid-July whether to approve the takeover of 62.4 percent of the Novosti company by Austrian Ost Holding, which is owned by German media group VAZ, said the Commission to Beta news agency yesterday. In January 2009, Ost Holding submitted a request to the Commission for approval of the acquisition of a majority share in Novosti. The request was amended by Ost Holding in January 2010. In May 2011, the Committee rejected the Austrian company's complaint against its decision to use the regular procedure – which can last up to three months – to establish the market share that VAZ would have in the Serbian market if its takeover of a part of the Novosti company was approved. Last year, the company announced that it had begun taking over ownership shares in Novosti after a purchase of 100 percent of stocks held by an Austrian company, Ardos. Ardos is one of the three companies via which a Belgrade businessman, Milan Beko, has become the majority owner of Novosti. At the moment, apart from an indirect ownership over 29 percent of stocks (via the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund), the state owns 7.2 percent of stocks but is not interested in speeding up the process of defining ownership relations in the company. Milan Beko purchased from small stockholders the package with 62.4 stocks of Novosti at the stock exchange in 2006. The Securities Committee began examining connections between these companies in November last year, after Beko had publicly admitted that he was the majority owner of Novosti.
(Beta, Danas, Pregled, 26/05/2011)

German media group VAZ announced the completion of the sale of Stampa System newsstand chain to a food producer from Belgrade, Centroproizvod. The sale price remains confidential, in accordance with the sales agreement between the contracting parties. A member of the management of VAZ and the company's representative in Serbia, Peter Lange, said that the successful sale of Stampa System brought the media group one step closer to achieving its goal of withdrawal from the Serbian market.
(Beta, Blic, Politika, Danas, Vecernje Novosti, 26/05/2011)

During the summer, the Securities Commission intends to complete the procedure of establishing possible connections between participants in the ownership structure of the NIP Vecernje Novosti company, said the sources from the Commission to Danas daily. Expert services and the president of the Securities Commission refused to allow Danas to examine the documentation related to the ownership structure of the company. Aside from the state, which is the largest individual owner in the company, other owners include three foreign companies whose structure extends to off-shore zones, making it very difficult for the Commission to verify Milan Beko's claims that he is the majority owner.
(Danas, 31/05/2011)

The Anti-Corruption Council of the Government of Serbia will file criminal charges against a number of people who had participated in the illegal privatization of the Belgrade media company Novosti, announced the Council yesterday. For more than a year, the Council has been gathering and analyzing the documentation related to privatization of Novosti, which clearly shows that the company was publicly owned in 2006, when it was illegally privatized in accordance with an agreement between the director of the company, Manojlo Vukotic, and businessman Milan Beko – said the president of the Council, Verica Barac. She pointed out that Predrag Bubalo, who was the minister of economy at the time when Milan Beko bought around 62 percent of stocks in Novosti via related companies, had also participated in illegal activities related to the case.
(B92 and Boom 93, 1/06/2011, Alo!, Pregled, 02/06/2011)

We were shocked by the sheer scope of illegal activities in the process of privatization of Novosti, the examples of blatant violation of regulations by state institutions and their role in cover-up of the committed acts. We have come to a conclusion that the whole case amounts to organized crime based on a collusion between the executive branch of government and centers of financial power or tycoons, said the president of the Anti-Corruption Council, Verica Barac, at a press conference. She added that the case had been investigated by the Council for more than two years, and that the biggest obstacle was related to gathering of valid documentation.
(Danas, 02/06/2011)

In accordance with court verdicts, a part of equipment was again confiscated from a local TV station in Valjevo (TVA) because of unpaid salaries, confirmed sources from the station to Beta news agency. The temporary representative of the capital, Branko Trifunovic, tried to reach an agreement with former employees and convince them to only make an inventory of equipment and wait for better circumstances for payment of late salaries, but they refused. Bankruptcy proceedings will be initiated if the TVA station is not taken over by the City Assembly again, which should be decided by members of the Assembly and approved by the Ministry of Economy of Serbia.
(Beta, Danas, Press, Politika, Pravda, 28/05/2011)

A Russian businessman, Vladimir Yevgenievich Yemelianov, now owns 50 percent of the company Radio-Television Kraljevo and Ibarske Novosti d.o.o., confirmed Davor Cicic to the Tanjug news agency. Cicic's company, Kemo, had previously been the sole owner of the media house. The sales contract was signed in the premises of the regional TV Kraljevo in the town of Konarevo near Kraljevo, but financial details are not known. TV Kraljevo has a regional frequency, while Radio KV has a local frequency. Weekly magazine Ibarske Novosti is distributed in the city. In June of the last year, the company that was in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings was bought for 12 million dinars by the Kemo company owned by Davor Cicic. Around 40 people now work in the company RTV Kraljevo and Ibarske Novosti.
(Tanjug, Pregled, 31/05/2011)

Zeljko Mitrovic intends to sell TV Avala to the CMI company for the price of 10.5 million euros, reports daily newspaper Press. Negotiations with CMI began on last Friday. CMI owns more than 20 TV stations, among them TV Nova in Croatia and POP TV in Slovenia. The largest obstacle to the sale of Avala is the station's debt, which amounts to more than 30 million euros. Serbian laws forbid foreign ownership of more than 50 percent of TV stations with national frequencies. However, flexible interpretation of the laws has already allowed the sale of majority shares in B92 and Fox to the Greek company Antena.
(Press, 03/06/2011, Kurir, 08/06/2011)

For the first time, the city administration has allocated four million dinars for co-financing of private electronic media outlets in Valjevo. The largest share of the funds was given to the regional TV Vujic – 1.5 million dinars. Regional Radio Patak received 800,000 dinars, while local TV Valjevo and Radio 014 received 600,000 dinars each. A Roma Radio Tocak, Radio Kula and Radio Istocnik – radio station of the Valjevo Eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church – received 200,000 dinars each.
(Press, 04/06/2011)

Certain media outlets, that are now owned by the state, might get new owners by 2013 – the citizens of Serbia. The draft media strategy, that will be publicly discussed in a few days, envisions an 18-month period during which the state would be required to sell its radio and TV stations, newspapers and news agencies. If this task ends unsuccessfully, the state would be obliged to issue stocks to citizens for free.
(Vecernje Novosti, 08/06/2011)

Minority media outlets

RTV Spektri from Bujanovac said in a statement that leaders of eight Albanian political parties from the south of Serbia were attempting to present themselves as victims in the pre-election year with the aim to hide their own incompetence and nepotism. "The future for Albanians in this region lies only in the economic success", emphasizes the announcement.
(RTV Spektri, Media Center, 06/06/2011)

Broadcasting of parliamentary sessions

The president of the National Parliament of Serbia, Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, said that the agreement on broadcasting of parliamentary sessions with the Radio-Television Serbia would probably be signed during the next week.
(Blic, 02/06/2011)