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Leaders
December 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Hungarian media expansion in Balkans lacks impact
Hungarian owned media became more present
in Slovenia and North Macedonia in the last few years, but a research showed that their impact is not very significant, BIRN reported on December 4.
On November 25, MEPs held a debate on Hungarian media financing in North Macedonia and Slovenia and asked the European Commission to take concrete measures against this practice.
"Despite the apparent lack of impact, Hungarian- owned media are still generating significant revenues," BIRN reported citing data from
a recent research.
The latest acquisition by a Hungarian media outlet was Slovenia’s Planet TV. At the end of September, Telekom Slovenije, the biggest telco in Slovenia, announced it completed the sale of its Planet TV for €5mn to TV2 ADRIA, a Slovenian subsidiary of Hungarian media company TV2 Media.
According to BIRN, TV2 Media Csoport was reportedly co-owned by Jozsef Vida, one of the wealthiest men in Hungary, whose government is led by authoritarian PM Viktor Orban, and is
a member of the business circle around Orban’s ruling Fidesz party.
The Hungarian expansion started in 2017, when three Hungarian companies – Ridikul, Ripost and Modern Media Group – purchased Slovenia’s Nova24TV.
In 2018, Ripost and Modern Media Group left Nova24TV and the ownership was changed with Hespereia and Okeanis being the purchasers. Both companies were established on the same
day in November 2018, according to the article.
Among the owners of the Hungarian companies were Peter Schatz and Agnes Adamik, who
later changed her name to Agnes Kovacs. Both previously worked for the Hungarian state broadcaster. Also involved was Arpad Habony, as a co-owner of Hungary’s Modern Media Group.
Nova24TV is also co-owned by members of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by conservative PM Janez Jansa, and close ally of Orban.
In the meantime, Schatz and Adamik started investing in North Macedonia's media close to ex-conservative PM Nikola Gruevski, another Orban ally, who fled the country in 2018 after being sentenced to two and a half year in
a courrption scandal and was granted asylum in Budapest.
Since 2017, Hungarian businessmen took over broadcaster Alfa TV as well as web portals kurir.mk, denesen.mk, vistina.mk, republika.mk and netpress.com.mk.
BIRN also reported that Macedonian financial police have filed charges against Hungarian businessman Peter Schatz for tax evasion, after making illegal gains for himself and his company CHS Invest Group, which is majority owner of Alfa TV.
Allegedly Schatz did not report revenues of around €190,000, causing damage to the state budget of €19,000.
The investigation into money laundering against Schatz reportedly is still ongoing.