Telekom alleged to control tabloid publisher

Beta/Adria Media Group

The Serbian state-controlled telecommunications company is believed to have control over some media even though the law says that the authorities can have no share in any media.

The Telekom Serbia is alleged to have control over the Adria Media Group which publishes the Kurir tabloid daily through the Mondo Inc company (owner of the Mondo portal). Mondo was set up by Telekom but is now owned by the company’s long time strategic partner Igor Zezelj, giving rise to suspicions that the state-controlled company now controls Adria Media as well as a number of cable operators which it bought in 2018, the same year that Mondo bought the media group.

“The Mondo news desk shares offices with other companies owned by Zezelj. The Telekom set up Mondo 15 years ago and they are all sitting in the same offices, answering the same phone and are all linked somehow. It’s not clear what the deal is in that dark triangle between Zezelj, Telekom and Mondo and why none of it is transparent,” BIRN journalist Ana Novakovic told N1.

Zezelj never revealed how much he paid for Adria Media. His company was asked by N1 and was told that the price is a business secret, adding that it was paid for by Mondo.

Novakovic said that Zezelj has been the owner of record of Mondo for a year. She added that Mondo was registered as a Telekom portal before then. “They all work together. Zezelj’s companies work with Telekom. Telekom is not the owner of Mondo now but was once and suddenly Mondo takes over the Adria Media Group. Evidently there is a mechanism … and there is a link between Telekom, Adria Media and Zezelj,” Novakovic said.

Zezelj and his company denied any links to Telekom. “The Adria Media Group has no strategic partnership but only a commercial business relationship” with Telekom, the company said in a written reply. It added that it would set up a TV channel on its own and would work with the Telekom on channel distribution. Novakovic said that Kurir seems to be siding with the authorities since it was bought by Zezelj.