As political and economic twins, Orban and Vučić had a very extensive business-autocratic cooperation, so it is not silly to think that these powerful transactions, whose ultimate goal - at least it seems - is the destruction of media freedom, i.e. their business-political instrumentalization, are the result of joint activism. We cannot keep silent about the fact that Yettel has cut off access to N1 and Nova channels for some of its users these days, I guess by chance before the elections. As the company told "Vreme", some users are included in a pilot project in which their monthly subscription is 300 dinars lower, but the channel offer is different. Those who do not wish to do so continue to use all the channels from the package they previously selected, paying the full price of the monthly subscription.
What is happening on the media scene, which is more heated than ever, is perhaps the clearest signal that the government in Serbia is in a state of panic, that is, that research into the political and other preferences of citizens does not suit it at all. The regime's ship is sinking, and Vučić and the team, one would say hysterically, are trying to plug the holes from which information is leaking from the real reality - one that is, one would say, diametrically different from the imaginary world produced by the regime's media for a decade and a half. It's hard work, you patch up big holes, a mountain of small ones appear, and sometimes it seems that just one lamp is enough to expose the nakedness of the regime, the political pornography in which we live. Everything they get hold of is rotten. And the elections are knocking on the door, they will have to happen sometime.
But it is not that there is no cause for concern. There is no doubt that the regime aims to turn off the lights in Serbia and to continue in the dark with lucrative business for the benefit of the newly created elite and various other liars and investors. He has long since given up the trick for foreign affairs - to let the few independent media be flowers in his garden, in order to create a semblance of democracy. It is not that there is no money to invest in the dark, and all that has been happening lately, and not only lately but since Vučić came to power, shows that the progressives are quite skilled, and certainly determined, in eliminating media freedoms, that is, freedom of speech and opinion.
If, as experts in the media situation expect, he takes control of the Adria News Network (ANN) in the future, the regime will have done a good job for itself. It will "protect" from the truth many undecided voters, who can decide the outcome of the election. It is unlikely that the remaining objective and independent media will succeed in filling the gaps, especially since many of them are in a difficult economic situation, into which the regime has inserted them, completely, very systematically, making normal business impossible. And they should certainly expect new blows, in a situation where foreign funds are increasingly stingy and demanding. That's the way things are, realistically speaking.
photo: Aleksandar Mijailović / Fonet...
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
Some believe that the holes will be filled by new portals or other media that have been announced or that have already started working, and which will be financed, at least in part, by "our people" from abroad. Others, the biggest optimists, say that social networks will be enough. No one doubts the power of social networks, but, say those who are less optimistic, it should be borne in mind that the work of a professional journalist is something that costs money and involves a thorough and not at all simple procedure. Hardly any post or "reel" will be able to replace an analytical and research text, which is created over days, weeks or even months. It is hardly possible for the social network gang to play the role that serious media and journalists should have, today perhaps more than ever before - and that is to be guides through a complex world, full of deceptions and reflections, that is, to be some kind of correctives of public opinion and controllers of political and social processes.
And even if it is possible for social networks to be a counterweight to hundreds and hundreds of richly paid regime media with state money - who can guarantee us that Vučić and his team will not go for internet freedoms, following the example of similar authorities in the countries of eastern dictatorships. Some will say: well, that's not possible, after all, we are a country that aspires to travel to Brussels. But what have we believed to be impossible, and now live it in the full range of fear? And when you look at how things are with the mood of the citizens, that is, the galloping growth of populism in the largest European countries, the question is really what this community of peoples will look like in the near future.
There is one thing that is not talked about enough, and which is very important, not only from the human aspect. If the government completes the deal with ANN media, it will mean that a huge number of journalists will be out of work and without income. Some of them will not agree to work according to the dictates of the caricature regime, and some will not even have the opportunity to choose.
Where will they be employed, who will receive these "enemies of the people and the state"? It's a narrow, very narrow space. It will be a sweet revenge for the regime, we can already see the champagne being opened in the party headquarters. All of this is part of a broader regime action, the aim of which is to leave more visible opponents without bread, such as some professors and many others whose names we only remember for a few days, until some new bad news hits us. And what message is that for others? Who will bow his head after that? The regime is counting on it.
We mentioned all this not to spread defeatism, but to understand the seriousness of the situation. Many citizens have become media literate all these years, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We live in a time in which you should be aware that you have to pay a few dinars for the truth, while lies are offered for free.
MEDIA AT THE WATERING
There is that joke when Muji's doctor, after a thorough diagnosis, says that he has one good and one bad news for him. Muyo asks to tell him the good news first, and the doctor says that the disease will be named after him. Certainly, this open operation on the heart of the media, which Vučić has been conducting for a decade and a half, will be named after him. The horror and darkness we live in, this most primitive of all primitive political propaganda in the history of mankind, will be studied at various faculties, sometime in the future. Of course, if humanity survives such leaders.
Students will learn and will be amazed at how the frog of media freedom, ethics and aesthetics in Serbia was drowned thoroughly, first gradually, then more and more. The regime counted on human greed and stupidity, which is very often a winning combination. He opened state and parastatal piggy banks and then many media workers came to the watering hole themselves. Some have repented in the meantime, but what can you do? Others stayed at the watering hole, doing the dirty work, some in peace, squinting and believing that no one saw them, and some with noise and fury.
For those others, who stuck to their profession, the sledgehammer followed. First, as we said, they were prevented from doing normal business, both state and private funds were closed to them. Satanization followed, they were declared anti-Serb elements and a general hunt was launched against them. The rule is as follows: the government targets them, and then there is a general pitchfork. Insults and death threats, even physical attacks; in the meantime, all of this metastasized to the point that now some of our colleagues have been "relocated", that is, they are somewhere abroad because it has been estimated that their safety and their families are at risk. It is to be hoped that it will not be only the first swallows, and that some local journalists and media will not be transferred abroad for a long time, as, for example, many fled from Moscow and Minsk.
GOOD NEWS, SILK
The bad news is that many of our colleagues agreed to work contrary to everything they were taught about their profession, and the good, very good, is that many journalists found themselves at the top of the list of "enemies of the state", because they remained faithful to true and objective, critical journalism. And there are not a few of them! And so they saved the honor of the profession! Let's clarify things immediately when it comes to critical journalism: for about a hundred and odd years, the journalistic maxim has been valid that journalism is the publication of what the powerful do not want to be published, and that everything else is PR or propaganda.
Here we come to some more good news. A colleague told us that the situation is so catastrophic that we have no choice but to be optimistic. And it is not that there is no reason for optimism when it comes to media freedom in Serbia and elsewhere. Those with the cheapest tickets realized a long time ago that there can be free media and normal public debate here - only when this government ends up in the dustbin of history, in the sector of dishonor. And media freedom and public debate are the foundations of democracy and normality, as well as other things that do not exist in Serbia: free and fair elections, rule of law, separation of powers, independent judiciary, protection of human and minority rights, political pluralism, responsibility and replaceability of government and transparency of institutions.
We said at the beginning that the government is hysterically patching holes in a sinking ship. She has expired, kanda. Not even the most violent propaganda, on which so much of our money is spent, nor the suppression of unwanted media, can stop it, maybe only slow it down to some extent. They will not bring back the voters who have finally found out what is happening to them in the state and society. Everything is falling apart in front of our eyes, and neither all the powerful media that the regime has put under direct control, nor those it has founded recently, have been able to hide that. We have already written about the fact that the regime is rapidly stamping out local "informers", i.e. local messengers of hatred and lies, dissatisfied with the somewhat washed-up local media it now pays.
Elem, these few percent of free media, which barely manage to make ends meet, managed to prevail over the billions of money invested in the regime's. Why? Well, precisely because propaganda has lost touch with reality and anyone with a little salt in their head, and who is not trapped by corruption or chained in front of the television, sees this discrepancy. Hardly anyone can "smoke" the story of a great and wise leader when it is so obvious that everything around us is bursting with injustice, thievery, violence, misfortune, poverty and primitivism.
Orbán believed that he had closed all the media holes, but Peter Magyar trampled him like a Speditija frog, with the help of a stick and string. Billions did not help, neither did the money for pan-European media transactions that Hungary invested in the Alpak menagerie, about which we will say a word later. So, it's not that it always happens, but sometimes even one internet television can shake a regime that seemed as strong as Brac marble, as was the case with our northern neighbor.
WORN OUT CARPET
At the beginning of his career, the regime successfully carried out kerefeks in the space between non-governmental organizations, media and journalist associations and the so-called international community. New laws were adopted, for which applause came from Brussels, extensive and senseless media strategies were made: energy and money were being wasted, and the situation on the ground was getting worse and worse. Now it is clear to everyone what is happening with the media and democracy in Serbia, and the surveillance from the West is stronger than ever.
The management of the former United and now ANN media is carefully monitored, so perhaps the matter will not be able to be implemented as quickly and efficiently as the government would like. It was as if she was late with the establishment of complete darkness: she was caught in the middle of the Novi Sad tragedy and everything that happened after it, which did change this society. And the perception of Serbia. Of course, we should not bet on pressure from the West, we know that well, but we should not completely underestimate it either.
There is something more in all of this - not only in the story about Alpak but, for example, in the story about the state-owned Telekom rapidly buying new regional media (we just heard that Una Television is also being targeted) - something else. This opens up another dimension of the story, which at first glance may favor Vučić, but fundamentally it does not really work in his favor. If it turns out to be true that his cabinet will have an influence on Alpak's media (it already has Telekom's, you can see it from the plane), then it will turn out to have an influence on the personnel and editorial policy of some influential media in the region. And that won't exactly be greeted with a smile on his face, given his ratings around here and the fact that the media he controls are ultra-nationalist and ultra-hateful. It will not pass without international turbulence.
PHENOMENON ALPACA
A separate text could be devoted to the media role of the state-owned Telekom and its intention to monopolize, primarily with our money, a good part of the media scene in Serbia and the region. Let us remind you that until two years ago it was forbidden by law for the state or state companies to own the media. However, of course, the law was not respected, and then it was "adjusted" to the situation on the ground. Telekom, namely, even before the change in the law, contrary to the regulations, was the founder of the media, among them the local branch of Juronuz.
By the way, Euronews has been a mostly private company since 2015 (before that, the founders were European public services), first in the hands of a certain Egyptian billionaire, and since 2022 owned by Alpak Capital, a company prone to various unusual media-business combinations. By the way, Juronujz is successfully selling its name and heritage, so for example, at the opening of its Belgrade representative office, despite the aforementioned illegalities, we were able to see some opposition champions as well. The public was mostly silent about the fact that the opening of Juronujz in Serbia is, to say the least, problematic. The role of Juronuz was clear from the beginning, and the matter was exposed to the end when this media company last year fired employees who did not want to work according to the dictates of politics.
So, let's focus on the Alpak phenomenon, which is at the center of not only, as we said, domestic media pizdaria. We may not know what their media in Serbia and the region will look like in the near future (in Serbia they are: N1, Nova, "Radar" and "Danas"), but there are serious reasons for fear - there are! Actually, all the red alarms went off!
We will start with the blitzkrieg replacement of the director of all ANN media in the region ten days ago, which does not inspire confidence at all. That's not how it's done unless it's a hostile takeover. One of the company's owners, Pedro Vargas David, appointed himself to the position of director. It is not unimportant to say that David's father, whom Vučić triumphantly said was his close friend, Mario David, was a long-time adviser to Viktor Orbán. It is not unimportant to say that Alpak is a co-owner of the large Hungarian technology-telecommunications group 4iG, which during the rule of Viktor Orbán made a mountain of money thanks to state affairs and acquisitions of strategic infrastructure. Reuters describes it as a company politically connected to Orbán's system, and Peter Magyar's government recently launched a review of all state contracts with 4iG, including a framework contract with the Ministry of Defense, worth more than 3,5 billion euros.
ALPACA ENTRY, EUROPEAN PUBLIC SERVICES ARE COMING OUT
Today, Juron News is majority owned (97,6 percent) by Alpak Capital, while the remaining 2,4 percent is jointly held by ADMIC from Abu Dhabi, the Moroccan public broadcaster SNRT and the Maltese PBS. Following Alpak's entry into majority ownership, European public broadcasters are leaving the ownership structure. Among them were France Télévision, RAI, RTBF and the Swiss SRG SSR.
Now, what is interesting about this whole acquisition. In 2022, Alpak Capital becomes the owner of Juronuz, its media and brand, and 88 percent of the capital pays 170 million euros. Thanks to the research of the European media, we know that at least a third of the acquisition had to do with Hungary, that is, the then regime of Viktor Orbán, who is anything but a fan of media freedom and professional journalism. Namely, part of the money was provided by the Hungarian State Savings Fund (45 million euros), and at least another 12,5 million euros came through the New Land Media company owned by Gyula Balashi, an important businessman of the Orbán regime.
It is certainly a very complex political-financial transaction in which, as we know, many people are involved, and which ultimately resulted in the purchase of ANN media. It is to be hoped that the investigations carried out by the Hungarian government will shed light on the role that the Vučić regime played in this whole confusion. And if he had, not only the sequence of events and logic dictate, but also what we could hear from the "intercepted conversation" of the general managers of United Group, the former owner of ANN media, and Telekom - Sten Miller and Vladimir Lučić.
Let us remind you that Orban and Vučić are political and economic twins and that they had a very extensive business-autocratic cooperation, so it is not silly to think that these powerful transactions, whose final goal - at least it seems - is the destruction of media freedom, that is, their business-political instrumentalization, are the result of joint activism. We heard back in 2023, from good sources, that unusual meetings were held in Belgrade with representatives of the United Group, the Orban and Vučić regimes.
Maybe someday we will find out what the rather strange sale of the UG portfolio to Telekom Srbija and Yettel, in February of last year, has to do with the whole story. Let's remember that Yettel bought SBB for 825 million euros, while Telekom gave 652 million euros for NetTV Plus, EON and Total TV. The total value of the transactions was around 1,5 billion euros. We cannot keep silent about the fact that Yettel has cut off access to N1 and Nova channels for some of its users these days, I guess by chance before the elections. As the company told "Vreme", some users are included in the pilot project in which their monthly subscription is 300 dinars lower, but the channel offer is different. Those who do not want to, continue to use all the channels from the package they previously selected, paying the full price of the monthly subscription.
It should be added that the entire package of ANN media cost only 30 million euros, which for some is a rather low price and does not reflect their market value.
Finally, it should be said that Article 6 of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) obliges media service providers to easily and directly make available to users up-to-date information about their direct and indirect owners with shares that enable them to influence business and strategic decision-making, as well as real owners. That's work for European institutions!
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