The Voice of Journalism
On Saturday night a helicopter, guides and visitors descended on a heliesqui tour in the Alaskan interior, and five of the other six people on board died. The story of the tragic turn of fate is hardly part of the national data cycle in the United States, but in the Czech Republic it is massive news: Petr Kellner, through the richest guy in the country, among the victims. Ranked 68th on Forbes’ worldwide billionaires’ list, at the same point as Rupert Murdoch and his family. Unlike Murdoch, Kellner is not primarily a media tycoon: the investment corporation he founded amid the postcommunist privatization wave had interests in insurance, client credit, telecommunications and real estate; however, he had recently taken steps to do so. In October, WarnerMedia, the U. S. media giant paid corporate, now owned by AT
Kellner insisted that he would be a “responsible” owner of the networks, but fears about his intentions abounded anyway. At the time of the acquisition, press freedom teams added by Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute suggested to Kellner that he respect editorial independence and pointed to possible conflicts with his relationships. trade, especially in China. (Kellner also had deep advertising ties to Russia. ) Writing separately, Michal Klíma of the Czech branch of IPI placed these considerations in a broader context: In recent years, other wealthy local businessmen bought portions of the Czech press from foreign owners, and infrequently used their control to dubious purposes. In 2013, an emerging politician through the call of Andrej Babiš acquired the editor of two of the most important newspapers in the Czech Republic, which have treated him favorably ever since. He now he is the Czech Prime Minister. Since 2014, Daniel Křetínský, the third richest guy in the country (according to Forbes), has owned newspapers and websites, adding the tabloid Blesk; His headline reporters said that Křetínský does not interfere with his work, although in 2019 a right-wing site he owns was connected to a pro-China public relations crusade that was eventually funded through one of Kellner’s companies. Kellner was, in a way, a mentor and rival to Křetínský (who also had a mischievous relationship with Kellner’s daughter), and was also close to Miloš Zeguy, the Czech president. Robert Brestan, a Czech journalist, told French journalist Jérôme Lefilliâtre that he believes Kellner has made the decision to invest in the media, at least in part, in an effort to melt his negative symbol as a political heavyweight on the scene.
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The media footprint of Czech oligarchs has not been limited to the country’s borders: Koet-nsko has great interests in the French press, adding a stake in Le Monde; According to Just Security, Kellner was recently concerned about telecommunications transactions in Serbia that threatened the financing of a primary independent media outlet. Nor does the trend towards the expansion of oligarchic media control come exclusively from the Czech Republic; similar dynamics have been given in paintings. and Eastern Europe. In 2014, Penta, an investment organization that also owns Czech stores, bought a stake in Gerguy in SME, a leading independent newspaper in Slovakia. Its editor-in-chief, Mata Kostolna, resigned in protest; her successor, Beata Balogov, told me in 2019 that while the “highly poisonous oligarchic organization” has only a minority stake, EMS still had to work hard to maintain its independence. Late last year, one of Penta’s founding partners, which is also Slovakia’s richest guy – was arrested on corruption charges.
While oligarchs like Kellner and Křetínský have made their fortunes independently (at least in the simplest sense of the word), tough media players in other countries owe their good fortune more directly to government patronage. In Hungary, businessmen close to Viktor Orbán, the country’s authoritarian prime minister, have bought much of the press; Last summer, a best friend of Orbán’s took over the advertising division of Index, a widely read independent news site, leading to the firing of his publisher, Szabolcs Dull, and large staff resignations. in protest. Andras Petho, a prominent Hungarian journalist, told me that Index’s policy is now “much friendlier to the government. ” Again, those dynamics are not purely national: Investors connected to Orbán have recently been implicated in media acquisitions in North Macedonia and Slovenia, where Prime Minister Janez Janša is Orbán’s best close friend and has declared war on the media. In the fall, Janša rejoiced unabashedly when Kellner took control of the 24UR network as a component of his deal with WarnerMedia; After some time, Janša and Kellner reportedly met. in person. Also last year, the far-right Polish Law and Justice Party accused foreign media corporations of electoral interference, the basic best friend on behalf of the German government, and pledged to bring such media under national control. “The media in Poland,” said Jarosław Kaczyński, the law and justice leader, after the victory of his component, “should be Polish. ” This month, a state-owned oil refinery was Polska Press, a chain of regional newspapers that was once owned by Germany.
Press freedom in many of these countries has also been undermined by brutal state power: last month, for example, Klubridi, an independent radio station in Hungary, was expelled from radio waves through the country’s politically appointed Media Council and through a judicial decision. Especially since Trump’s rise, foreign media observers have occasionally focused on such cases of government repression around the world; The most insidious and incestuous forces of consolidated media ownership, occasionally driven by personalities such as Kellner, who sought to live out of the public eye, have rarely gained less attention. the effect on Kellner may or may not have had on the independence of his networks; now, in the wake of the tragedy in Alaska, we will never know. However, your company’s media footprint will require scrutiny. In the cases described above, the need for constant surveillance is obvious.
In Central and Eastern Europe, independent hounds run tirelessly to enforce this control and maintain responsible governments, which in many cases are moving rapidly towards authoritarianism. protested a new advertising tax that said it would paralyze them monetaryly (officials promised to amend the proposal). The following year, he gained the growing help of readers. “More and more people are knowing that independent media won’t do it without their monetary contribution,” Petho said. The situation, he added, “is not so desperate. “
Below is more information on press freedom in Central and Eastern Europe:
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