Media business operations

The vice president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Dijana Vukomanovic, said that the party would not spend money on television advertisements during the rest of the election campaign.
(Alo!, 26.04.2012)

The trade union of journalists employed with the daily newspaper Novosti from Belgrade said that the government, which owns more than 30 percent of the capital of the company "NIP kompanija Novosti a.d.", was responsible for the company's losses. As of mid-last year, state representatives have had the majority in the Managing Board of the company.
(RTV online, UNS, 26.04.2012)

"We have suffered losses, but everything is clean in the financial sense and in accordance with the law. The Novosti company is not facing disaster. Of course, we have debt, but is much smaller than what is owed to us", says the press statement issued by the Executive Board of the company.
(Vecernje Novosti, UNS, 26.04.2012)

Employees of TV Avala will begin a new strike today and interrupt their live programmes because the management of the station has not fulfilled the obligations agreed upon in the end of February. Part-time workers have not received their November earnings, while the permanently employed workers have not received their December salaries.
(Press, UNS, 04.05.2012)

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) expressed its solidarity with the part-time and permanent employees of TV Avala, who began a new strike today because of the several month-long delay in payment of salaries. NUNS calls on the owner of TV Avala to fulfil the justified demands of journalists and other media workers in the company as soon as possible.
(NUNS, 04.05.2012)

Privatization and the state-owned media

"In June of the last year, the Securities Committee established that Milan Beko owned 62 percent of the shares of Novosti via his three companies. The Committee ordered Beko to make an offer for purchase of the remaining shares or to sell the non-voting shares within a three-month period. That has not been done", said Dragana Cabarkapa, the president of the Trade Union of Journalists of Novosti, while commenting on the auditing report that showed that the debt of the company exceeds its assets. The auditor established that the company owes one billion dinars.
(Pravda, UNS, NUNS, 27.04.2012)

The majority owner of the company Novosti, businessman Milan Beko, was obliged to either sell before the end of 2011 all his shares in excess of 25 percent of the value of the company, or to purchase the state's 36 percent before the same deadline, in accordance with domestic regulations. However, although he has failed to do this, he has not suffered any consequences. Several days ago, the Executive Board, some of whose members are Beko's representatives, claimed that nothing was wrong in the company, while the Monitoring Board has published auditor's report according to which the company owed one billion dinars. Assembly of Shareholders is scheduled for 25 May and the solvency of the company will be on the agenda.
(Pravda, UNS, 28.04.2012)