Media business operations

The Minister of Culture, Informing and Information Society, Predrag Markovic, announced during a meeting with the president of the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA), Ivar Rusdal, that he would soon propose the Government of Serbia to reduce the VAT for the print media and book publishers. The meeting was also attended by the state secretary for information, Dragana Milicevic Milutinovic, the executive director of the ENPA, Francine Cunningham, and the president of the Managing Board and the executive director of the Media Association, Veselin Simonovic and Zoran Papic.
(Tanjug, Blic, Vecernje Novosti, NUNS, UNS, 30.06.2011, Vecernje Novosti, 02.07.2011)

The entry of the Media Association in the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA) might contribute to continued professionalization of journalism and advancement of business operations of the print media in Serbia, said the Prime Minister of Serbia, Mirko Cvetkovic, after a meeting with the president of ENPA, Ivar Rusdal. The meeting was also attended by the executive director of the ENPA, Francine Cunningham, the president of the Managing Board of the Media Association, Veselin Simonovic, a member of the Managing Board of the Association, Manojlo Vukotic, and the executive director of the Association, Zoran Papic.
(Vecernje Novosti, 30.06.2011)

The director of Radio-Television Serbia, Aleksandar Tijanic, and the secretary of the National Parliament of Serbia, Veljko Odalovic, signed yesterday a contract on broadcasting of parliamentary sessions valued at 80 million dinars.
(Tanjug, Alo!, Danas, Politika, Dnevnik, Vecernje Novosti, Kurir, Pregled, Pravda, Blic, NUNS, UNS, 05.07.2011)

Competition?

In its statement delivered to the Pravda daily newspaper, TV Prva says that "RTS did not inform its viewers and subscribers until almost the last minute about their live airing of Zdravko Colic's concert at Usce. It is true that we had made an effort to allow our viewers to watch one of the previous concerts held by Zdravko Colic, which we announced in a usual manner. That recording was supposed to begin at 21.00. After receiving the information that the RTS would broadcast the concert at Usce, we decided to offer our viewers an alternative, instead of giving them two concerts at the same time."
(Pravda, Press, 27.06.2011)

"A rich, powerful commercial TV station with two national frequencies, which is protected better than polar bears, chose to air an old Colic recording from Sarajevo at exactly the same hour – out of 365 days in a year and 24 hours in a day – when the RTS announced the live broadcasting of Colic's concert in Belgrade?! TV Prva did not inform its viewers that their 'exclusive' programme is an old recording from Kosevo."
(Politika, 28.06.2011)

Radio-Television Serbia has described as robbery and demonstration of media neocolonialism the decision of TV Prva to air an old Colic recording from Sarajevo at exactly the same time when the RTS was airing a live broadcast of Colic's concert at Usce. RTS' announcement emphasizes that "foreigners and their investment are certainly not the problem", but that the problem is when they "demonstrate that they are not bound by Serbian laws, good business practice, European fair market competition and standard normalcy". In the opinion of the RTS, this case should be investigated by the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency, Serbian courts, associations of journalists and European institutions.
(Press, Blic, 28.06.2011)

The announcement of RTS in which they accuse their colleagues from TV Prva for hypocrisy has not left a strong impression on "the Greeks". "Even the time that we have just spent to tell you that we will ignore the RTS' statement gives their fabrications more attention than they deserve!", says the statement issued by the PR department of TV Prva.
(Alo!, 29.06.2011)

Privatization and the state-owned media

There are more than 1,000 media outlets in Serbia. Most of them are owned by private media owners, as well as the Serbian Orthodox Church (two TV stations and 10 radio stations) and the Catholic Church (five radio stations), while mufti Moamer Zukorlic owns 20 percent of the Radio Ref Ref in Novi Pazar. There are 109 TV and 213 radio channels in Serbia. The state is still very much present as an owner at the local level, and it has a share in 113 media outlets in total, be it as a 100-percent or a majority owner, through municipalities or through the Shareholders' Fund or the Privatization Agency. Branislav Grkovic
(Blic, 24.06.2011)

If we put aside the national TV, RTS, Serbian TV scene is mostly owned by three individuals – the owner of TV Pink and an unofficial owner of TV Avala, Zeljko Mitrovic, the official owner of TV Prva and an unofficial owner of RTV B92, Minos Kyriakou, and the owner of children's "Happy TV", Predrag Rankovic Peconi. Until only a year ago, the public service broadcaster, RTS, and the commercial RTV Pink were the supreme rulers of ratings in Serbia. At the moment, the major players are RTS, TV Pink and TV Prva. Vladimir Djuric – Branislav Grkovic (The article contains detailed data on owners of national TV stations)
(Blic, NUNS, 24.06.2011)

579 newspapers are published in Serbia, owned by 324 publishing companies. Most of them are privately-owned, but the government has not relinquished its share in two major daily newspapers – Politika and Novosti. With regard to Press, it is being speculated that the mayor of Belgrade, Dragan Djilas, owns a share of the newspaper, and that the vice president of the Government, Bozidar Djelic, is the majority owner of the weekly magazine Ekonomist via his company. Radisav Rodic has transferred his ownership in the Kurir daily newspaper to his son, Aleksandar. Many observers have noticed that the editorial policy of Kurir has changed significantly after the arrest of Rodic. Although he is not listed in official documents as an owner of Novi Magazin, it is known that the magazine's founding and publication are financed by Miroslav Bogicevic, the owner of the concern "Farmacom". Branislav Grkovic (The article contains detailed data on the owners of numerous print media outlets)
(Blic, 25.06.2011)

The Municipality of Lazarevac has donated four million dinars to TV Spektrum, whose owner is the arrested Radoslav Savatijevic. However, Savatijevic has not delivered the necessary documentation about acquisition of equipment for TV Spektrum, and the public prosecutor of the municipality will initiate court proceedings.
(Kurir, 29.06.2011)

After the disclosure that the owner of TV Spektrum and a controversial businessman, Radosav Savatijevic Kene, received a donation in the amount of four million dinars from the municipality of Lazarevac, the Kurir daily newspaper has discovered new information. The complete sum totaling four million dinars has ended up on the bank account of his second company, "Pam-Ek", from which his TV Spektrum purchased the equipment. The source of Kurir reveals that in this way, Kene has practically sold the TV equipment to himself.
(Kurir, 02.07.2011)

The Securities Commission has ordered the companies owned by a Belgrade businessman, Milan Beko, which own 62.42 percent of the stocks of the newspaper company Novosti, to make an offer for taking over of the remaining stocks or to sell the majority ownership shares that exceed 25 percent. The minority shareholders of Novosti own 37.58 percent of stocks: the Republic of Serbia owns 29.5 percent, the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO) owns 7.15 percent, while small shareholders own 0.92 percent.
(Beta 05.07.2011)

The Central Register of Securities of Serbia registered on Wednesday the change in the managing structure of the Novosti company, after the majority owner, Milan Beko, was stripped of his right to 2,356 votes. Three Beko's companies now have the right to 1,684 votes, which means that the government with its 1,989 votes based on the share in Novosti amounting to 29.5 percent now has the most significant managing rights.
(Beta, Politika, UNS, NUNS, RTS, 06.07.2011)

During the last eight years in Serbia, 56 media outlets have been privatized in total, out of which 18 contracts on sale have been annulled – shows the data belonging to the Privatization Agency. Out of the planned number of public media outlets to be sold, 53 have remained non-privatized: seven privatization processes have been terminated, 37 privatizations have been stopped, while three unsuccessful auctions have been organized for each of the remaining eight media outlets. At the moment, according to the Agency, only one media outlet is being privatized. During the last year, the Government of Serbia adopted a decision to postpone the privatization of local electronic media outlets that broadcast programme in minority languages until the adoption of amendments to the Law on Broadcasting. At the same time, the process of privatization of 39 media outlets broadcasting in minority languages was terminated. According to the Privatization Agency, most of the media outlets in Serbia were privatized in 2007, while only four media outlets were sold during the last year.
(Danas, 06.07. 2011)

Issue No. 6
24 June – 06 July 2011

Abbreviations