The Executive Director of the Centre for Responsible Media Marko Matić thinks that a fight for United Group's interests is what is behind the US congressmen's letter to President Joseph Biden, and that it is yet another instance of the operation of a well-oiled mechanism run by Dragan Šolak.
According to a comprehensive investigation by Kurir, the network of politicians and instrumentalized media was created with the aim of removing any competition to Šolak's companies and obstacles to making enormous profits, all with the help of non-governmental organizations.
Matić noted that a few years ago United Group set up a structure aimed at protecting its market monopoly, explaining how the mechanism for destroying competition works.
"This structure includes companies and some politicians who have different sorts of interest ties with United Group, as well as media outlets such as Krik or the CIJS, acting to protect United Group's business interests," Matić said in Kurir Television's morning show.
According to Matić, the same pattern is noticeable wherever in the region United Group has business operations.
"The overall aim is to protect United Group's business interests, and not just any interests, but those relating to making enormous profits. Their primary goal was to destroy Telekom. We can see that they have applied the same pattern wherever in the region they have moved in," the CEFRM Executive Director said.
Matić explained how the links between the media and politics work.
"They first arose when Dragan Šolak received money for KDS in Kragujevac from a US fund. Then they bought a small competitor. Telekom didn't do anything about this at the time. Then they bought key individuals at regulatory bodies, political parties, and the media. Nowadays, they have media outlets like N1 and Nova, which are directly linked to United Group and control many other media, such as Vreme and NIN, because the latter depend on the ads they receive. This is invisible corruption. If these media outlets write about their interest, they will have a bigger piece of their media pie. They pass themselves off as independent media, but they are owned by the companies whose interests they must protect. You can see that Telekom is only mentioned in a negative light," Matić added.
Matić also touched on the letter that seven US congressmen sent to President Joseph Biden.
"The letter emerged only a day after Dragan Đilas's visit to Washington. Telekom and Pink are referenced in it, and you can see clearly that business interests alone are behind it. United Group keeps claiming that it fights for independent media and freedom of speech. However, you can see that money is behind it all. They're not attacking Aleksandar Vučić for ideological reasons. They wouldn't touch him if he were to let them destroy Telekom," the expert said.
Matić claims there are many indications that Dragan Đilas has become part of the conglomerate via his company Multikom.
"It's clear that Multikom founded the Freedom and Justice Party because the party's leadership are on its payroll. Just look at what they're advocating and what sort of treatment they get in these media outlets. They were the most active in the campaign against Telekom," the CEFRM Executive Director said
According to Matić, United Group started to get nervous when Telekom regained its footing.
"Their market losses are a result of their inability to play fair. They were only successful when they had people on kickbacks at Telekom and political protection, because there wasn't any competition fighting for its market share. When Telekom decided to use the content it creates to fight for the market, they started to lose. They don't have a development platform, so they hit below the belt and move everything into the domain of politics. The letter is a result of such lobbying. They are allowed to own television channels, but Telekom isn't. Telekom's hands were tied, while they could do whatever they wanted," Matić remarked.
He added that people see right through United Group's intentions.
"It's clear that they have a problem adhering to journalistic ethics. Some very important staffers have left them. Their editorial policy suffers from being subordinated to the company interests. Viewers trust them less, and their viewership ratings have taken a plunge. In a bid to regain trust, the so-called non-profit media, which receive money for investigative journalism, immediately jumped to their rescue. However, it's clear from the topics they cover that it's really the same interests," Matić said.
According to Matić, the aim of lobbying in Washington is an attempt to influence the decision of the court of arbitration regarding United Group's lawsuit against Telekom.
"They found people for money in Washington. What is their goal? They want to get hundreds of millions of dollars from Serbia because Serbia is allegedly waging a war against a company. But the exact opposite is the case. The government said, if you have a right to establish media outlets, Telekom does too! That's equality. And this is precisely why the letter was sent. They often referenced the US Embassy, which is a half-truth," Matić said.
The CEFRM Executive Director noted that United Group is waging a "pointless war" because it lacks the ability to be in market competition with Telekom.
"Telekom has already given the best response by working to improve its offer and investing in its infrastructure. It's regained its footing, and its market share is on the uptick. That's the best response," Matić said.
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