Page 78 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

78 Opinion
bne November 2021
The huge and blatant conflicts of interest between Babis’s political power and his business empire (he ranks 6th on the Forbes ranking) have drawn criticism from the EU, which has halted project payments to Agrofert until the government tackles the problem.
Agrofert’s ownership of the Mafra publishing house has also been criticized for effectively serving as an extended media platform for Babis and his ANO party. During the current election, Lidove noviny, the country’s oldest daily, now owned by Babis, has provided loyal coverage of ANO’s campaign, even headlining its front page with Andrej Babis' election promises. Babis denies any conflict of interest or using his media to help his political party.
The energy lobby also has great influence in both politics and the media. State-owed CEZ, headed by Daniel Benes for the past decade, has always had the ear of governments, whether of the left or right, and has also been a big player through advertising in the country’s media. In the past, it was also accused of being a source of corrupt payments to political parties and politicians, allegations it has always denied.
Benes, who is close to President Milos Zeman, is so powerful he was even able to dictate to Babis that the state must fund CEZ’s investment in its nuclear programme, despite the premier’s initial refusal to do so.
"Greenpiss"
But CEZ has now been superseded by the EPH conglomerate of companies, owned by Daniel Kretinsky and his old-new Slovak business partner Patrik Tkac, as the country’s no. 1 energy business, after its 2020 turnover outsized CEZ for the first time since the formation of EPH in 2009. EPH owns extensive gas infrastructure in the CEE region and has invested widely
in coal mines and power plants in Germany and the UK.
The other big Czech player is Pavel Tykac and Jan Dienstl’s Sev.en Energy, which controls one of the country’s largest portfolio of assets in lignite and coal mining and carbon-based power plants, with a strong presence in traditional mining regions in Northern Bohemia.
EPH and Sev.en Energy also have the ear of government, and EPH in particular can influence public opinion through its media holdings.
Kretinsky’s Czech News Center can match or even surpass the media influence of the prime minister’s Mafra. CNC boasts one of the largest collection of media outlets and its outlet Info. cz’s narratives are frequently echoed by its tabloid Blesk, the country’s best selling daily.
Daniel Kretinsky and Patrik Tkac have always denied that they try to influence CNC's editorial line, a spokesman telling me this summer: "I can assure you that shareholders of EPH and CNC do not find it appropriate to recommend journalists what themes to focus on."
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But according to environmental campaigner Josef Patocka, “the methods of both conglomerates are extremely unscrupulous” in pursuing their business goals and they engage in “manipulating public opinion so that it does not endanger the interests of fossil companies”.
He highlights Aktualne.cz’s investigations into the administration of online environmental parody websites “Greenpiss” and “Hnutí DUCHA” [the Ghost Movement”], which smear the country’s environmental NGOs.
Aktualne.cz claims “Greenpiss” website was linked to Sev.en Energy companies through a PR company. Sev.en Energy told bne IntelliNews in an emailed answer that it was not involved with the administration of the sites and did not try to manipulate public opinion against decarbonisation.
Patocka also argues that Czech News Center and its outlet Info.cz operate by “disseminating disinformation about climate or renewable resources”.
“Aktualne.cz claims “Greenpiss” website was linked to Sev.en Energy companies through
a PR company”
Info.cz certainly has a record of questionable reporting. It published a story about a Swedish teenager allegedly bullied into joining climate strikes against his will. The story turned out to be disinformation, as an investigation into its sources showed.
Vojtech Bohac, author of the investigation and currently the chief editor at Voxpot, told bne Intellinews that “the problem with Info.cz is that for a long time it has effectively functioned also as a PR agency”.
Bohac thinks that the story “can be a case of a sloppy journalism looking for sensational headline or it can be a case of an editorial room tacitly letting its reporters do such sloppy journalism”. It is difficult to prove orchestrated manipulation, he admits, but he says such reporting is “an enormous problem for Czech journalism as a whole”.
“We know that Kretinsky wants a conservative editorial room [at Info.cz], but we do not know whether this is also in pursuit of further political goals”, says Bohac.
Info.cz’s then editor Tomas Jirsa was one of the key figures involved in the nationwide PR push in favour of China, covertly financed by Home Credit of the late oligarch Petr Kellner’s PPF Group, one of the largest providers of small consumer loans
in China. PPF representatives maintained the goal of these activities was to “rationalise” public debate about China.