Kada media in Serbia change of owner, it is almost never just "business" news.
The last example is "Naše portal", whose publisher, the company Center for Information and Analytics, is no longer owned by the journalist and former presenter. Ane Mihajlovski Grubin, but construction businessman Branko Miljković, according to APR data. It's time already written about this case.
The question of who are the real owners of private media in Serbia and how much their business and political interests shape what citizens read, watch and listen to every day is being asked again.
Three in one
Among the names that appear more and more often in recent years on the ownership map of Serbian media is i Boban Rajic, a man who in short order became the owner of some of the most influential newspaper brands in the country.
Rajić entered the newspaper and publishing business in 2019 by purchase Evening news, and then becomes the owner political. Recently, he owns the weekly NIN.
"The newspaper and publishing company NIN doo is transferring ownership of its entire publishing portfolio and rights to the NIN brand (Nedeljne informativne novine) to the company Politika novine i magazini doo (PNM)," NIN announced in mid-May of this year.
Iz political announced that "thereby symbolically connecting two great journalistic legacies".
Something else is connected in the whole story.
The media have been linking Boban Rajić with Serbian progressive party and its highest officials.
Photo: A. AndjićNIN is owned by Politika.
Namely, Rajić is News bought in 2019. The transaction was made through the company "Media 026" from Vučevo near Smederevo, founded a year earlier.
The registration application was then submitted by lawyer Igor Isailović, also known as the lawyer of the Minister of Finance Siniša Malog. Isailović was also the business partner of the President of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, and he also collaborated with businessman Zvonko Veselinović, who was prominent on several grounds, as reported by BIRN.
Working locally too
Ahead of this year's local elections, new local media started to spring up across the country.
The Novi Sad company Zaple Media Group founded several new portals: Snaga juga, Nekad i sad, Nekad i sad info, Before and after info, Before-and-after, Stara Pazova live, Nova Pazova live, Podunavlje live, Serbia in the East, Palanačke vesti and Glas Aranđelovac.
The owner of the company that publishes these portals is Milica Lainović, and the director is Gradimir Banković, who is also the chief and responsible editor of all 11 new media.
Banković is known to the public as an associate Centra za društvenu stabilnost, who often visits and analyzes the social and political situation in the country.
The Center for Social Stability has made several films, among them "Evil Age 2", "(De)blockade" and "NGO File", in which dissidents of the government are targeted. The films were broadcast on cable and television with national frequencies, as well as on social networks.
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