Nova.rs: BIA combing Telekom Srbija after secret deal with Telenor leaked

Foto: N1, Nemanja Jovanović/Nova.rs

The agents of Serbia Security Information Agency (BIA) has been daily investigating Telekom Srbija's management for a week to find out who has leaked an agreement the state-owned company made with private Telenor mobile operator aiming to destroy the United Group's SBB company and its independent N1 and Nova S news channels.

As nova.rs source said, the combing of the Telekom „is a way to pressure every company’s manager to discover how the information from the Executive Board’s meeting held on December 1, 2020, were made public.“

The nova.rs source said BIA hired a private company which should carry out polygraph testing of at least 30 Telekom’s managers to find out who leaked the minutes from the meeting.

The document N1 had access to show the planned merger between Telkom and Telenor, owned by Czech tycoon Peter Kellner to reduce the SBB market share to less than 30 percent.

Telekom hopes that will disable the financing of N1, Nova S and Sport Klub, main SBB Tv channels, and thus prevent the existing of free media through the destruction of another private company.

The state-owned Telekom intends to provide Telenor with the complete cable network infrastructure and the cable television’s entire content.

Telekom planned to help Telenor increase profit, number of consumers, and finally push SBB out of the market, which is the main reason for the contract.

Serbia’s Commission for Protecting Competition confirmed both companies had addressed it, but refused to declare itself on the issue or the decision’s deadlines.

Experts and journalists have said that Telkom Srbija and Telenor’s agreement was „a classic example of the violation of the free competition rules and that its essence was to control the media market and destroy the independent media.“

Earlier on Monday, the United Media, a part of the United Group, said it informed all relative journalists’ and other international institutions about the move.