The Executive Director of the Centre for Responsible Media Marko Matić says that billionaire Dragan Šolak owns over 100 media outlets and that it is clear that his mechanism for destroying unsuitable media entities in the domestic and regional markets acts in an organized manner from a single centre!
Matić also points out that he was taken aback when he saw how many media outlets the owner of United Group has in his possession.
By way of a reminder, a comprehensive investigation by Kurir has revealed how Dragan Šolak's mechanism for destroying competition or eliminating all unsuitable media actors in the market operates. A tightly controlled network ensures a strict discipline within the mechanism and organizes uniform coordinated attacks against its business and political competition, as well as the media outlets not under the control of United Group.
"It's plain to see that Serbian billionaire Dragan Šolak is the biggest media owner in the region. A key event here was passing the media law in 2014, when, under pressure from Brussels, cable operators were allowed to start their own media outlets and channels that they could then broadcast via their networks. The snag there was that cable operators couldn't start their own news channels, only entertainment ones, but Brussels said they could. There was a time when a newspaper distributor couldn't own newspapers. That was a democratic standard. N1 was assigned first place just after it was founded. That's favouring channels that you own. Nova S is assigned second place," Matić said in Kurir Television's morning show.
Matić pointed out that the media law had been passed in the hope that Telekom would be privatized.
"Telekom wasn't privatized in 2016, but state-owned companies were banned from founding media outlets. The terms weren't equal for all the market players," Matić said, adding that the plan that followed was to destroy Telekom.
According to him, SBB and Telekom are tied in the market competition at the moment.
"Telekom will certainly win down the road. Dragan Šolak knew what would happen if the competition was on equal terms. Telekom's hands were tied all along. When there's free market competition, Šolak and SBB can only place second," Executive Director of the CEFRM said.
According to Matić, money was behind it all.
"They're trying to pass themselves off as having political goals, but what is behind all this is making excess profit. They need to hit below the belt, that's why they need so many media outlets. I was shocked when I found out what Šolak owns in Bulgaria. Of the countries in the region, they don't have nation-wide distribution only in Serbia. Šolak offered 500 million euros to buy TV Pink even as he was in negotiations to buy TV Prva," Matić said.
The Executive Director of CEFRM warned that there was a danger of a media monopoly.
"Dragan Šolak owns over 100 media outlets, of which no fewer than 25 are news media. This means that they have included political parties such as Dragan Đilas's party in the mechanism. Why are they doing this? We have media outlets controlled by Šolak and media outlets owned by other parties, but which support the same side. If the political party Šolak supports were to take power, then they would be able to drag the remaining media into the mechanism, and we would have a media monopoly. Political groupthink would be in place, which, incidentally, the government is constantly being accused of. People must know how dangerous that is," Matić said.
He noted that the routine procedure according to which the mechanism for destroying competition operates was evident.
"You can see that certain media outlets act in a uniform manner. It's evident who gets invited, as well as who launches news and who picks it up. You can see it's all run from a single centre, from planning to effect control. The end goal exists, and it's money. They filed an arbitration action in Washington, seeking a couple hundred million US dollars from Serbia. All their television channels operating in Serbia are in the red, which probably isn't a problem for them as long as there is a political interest and a long-term financial interest," Matić said, adding that the political party that Šolak supports would pump government funds into its media if it came to power.
Matić also commented on the claims that Šolak had hired Albanian lobbyists to influence the arbitration action in Washington.
"Šolak's mechanism uses all available channels. They hire Albanian lobbyists in Washington and the best lobbyists in Brussels. Šolak is the richest Serb. With the money he has, opportunities open up. He's been trying to influence decisions made in the global centres of power, and he pulled it off in 2014 in Brussels, before the European Commission. I hope that Serbia has a no-nonsense approach to the Washington process because paying a couple hundred million euros to a privately-owned company wouldn't be right," Matić said.
The CEFR's executive director also touched on the fact that most people could not watch the national team's Qatar World Cup qualifier.
"They'd been stifling competition, so now we're in a situation where their cable channel, available to few people, offers sports as well. They've even made profit via the EON platform. It's all about monopolizing, really, and this is a good example – half the people couldn't watch the game," Matić said.
According to him, monopoly over the news media poses the greatest threat.
"What's especially dangerous is concentrated ownership in the news media. There is a danger of someone having a monopoly over the truth. We have an effective duopoly in place. You don't have two truths. That's where the problem is," Matić noted.
(Kurir.rs)
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