13. 11. 2012

Businessman Miskovic withdraws from ownership of Press daily

Belgrade, November 13, 2012 (Blic) - After years of speculations that the real owner of the Press daily is Miroslav Miskovic, the Delta Holding President, Miskovic himself confirmed that those speculations were correct. In his press release of yesterday he said that he was withdrawing from the Press in which he was the largest individual owner.

This launches new speculations if this is an epilog of conflict between Miskovic and Serbia Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

Decision to withdraw from the Press, Miskovic made only several weeks after Vucic had accused him of leading an open war against the Deputy Prime Minister in order to oust Vucic at any cost and form a majority that would meet his own interests.

Then followed articles in some tabloids mentioning business dealings by Miskovic's companies in the context of corruption. The SNS leader mentioned ongoing investigations against certain companies connected with Miskovic.

Ljiljana Smajlovic, President of the UNS (Association of Journalists of Serbia) says for Blic that ‘by this decision Miskovic has sent a message to Vucic'.

‘That is how I see that. Miskovic says, o.k., you want transparent ownership in media, you do not want tycoons, but you have to say what the rules of the game are. He openly called on Vucic to say that.

When rich people having nothing to do with media are in them, they are in them for political motifs. They leave them for the same reasons, so I suppose that Miskovic decided to withdraw because of political pressures', Smajlovic says.

Jadranka Joksimovic of the SNS did not want to comment for Blic whether withdrawal by Miskovic has anything to do with his conflict with Vucic.

Nobody of the Press executives wanted yesterday to comment on the development of events at that daily either.

The Anti Corruption Council has determined that out of 30 most important media in Serbia (12 dailies, 7 weeklies, 6 TV and 5 radio stations) real owners are not known in 18 of them.