By: Andrej Žitnik / Nova24tv
Mojca Šetinc Pašek is the Chairwoman of the Commission of Inquiry that will look into the alleged illegal financing of political parties and, more specifically, into the political responsibility of political office holders in the financial exhausting of state-owned companies for the financing of the Slovenian Democratic Party’s media propaganda. An MP from the party in question called on the Commission of Inquiry to extend its inquiry to Odlazek’s empire as well.
We already know how the political inquiry will end and what its real purpose is – the inquiry is intended to intimidate state-owned companies so that they would not dare to advertise in the right-wing media anymore – or, in Golubović’s words, so that they will only advertise in “normal” media in the future. It is a typical political witch-hunt. In Slovenia, the financing of the so-called right-wing media, which are being persecuted by political revolutionaries, is, in fact, extremely transparent. It is known who the owners of the media outlets are, how the media are being financed, and how they operate.
However, the same cannot be said for Martin Odlazek’s extensive network of companies, who, through his clever manoeuvres and bypassing of the media legislation, has completely hegemonised the media landscape and turned journalists into mere “slave-like” journalistic hacks. The only thing we know about Odlazek’s radio-print-distribution empire is its editorial policy – it is far-left, strongly against the right-wing government, to the point of their journalists actually being more like professional media assassins, whose targets are exclusively right-wing politicians. However, the operating, ownership structure and business model of Odlazek’s media companies are shrouded in secrecy. That is why MP Jelka Godec called on the President of the Commission of Inquiry, Mojca Šetinc Pašek, to redirect her witch-hunt to the real villains of Slovenian media pluralism.
Martin Odlazek’s network of companies
Martin Odlazek’s network of companies has been several decades in the making and has its origins in the once ubiquitous “Salomonov oglasnik” (“Salomon’s Advertising Pages”), which was first published shortly after Slovenia gained its independence. Odlazek himself has seemingly formally withdrawn from the ownership and management of his companies, leaving the management to family members and other individuals who perform a variety of roles, from managerial to editorial, in the Media24 group companies. But despite the formal transfer of management roles, Martin Odlazek continues to make all key decisions on acquisitions, sales, staffing and business operations.
From a humble beginning at “Salomonov oglasnik,” Odlazek has practically become a hegemon in the press in Slovenia – and, of course, while that was happening, the competent authorities dutifully looked the other way. Today, Odlazek owns the Reporter magazine, the newspaper Večer, the media outlet Primorske novice, the sports daily Ekipa/SN and almost thirty different magazines. Through the company Salomon, it is also the owner of Veseljak TV television station and is also the largest single (albeit minority) owner of the RGL company, which, according to the media register, is the broadcaster of 19 radio stations under the RGL, Salomon and Aktual brands. Salomon is part of the media group Media24, which publishes, among others, the daily general information newspaper Svet24 and the Reporter magazine.
With the Necenzurirano.si web portal, Odlazek profiled himself as a political player from the background
It is clear that such media concentration is not only detrimental to the development of media competition but also to media pluralism. With the launch of the “media execution” web portal “Necenzurirano.si” (“Uncensored”), it became obvious that Martin Odlazek has clearly profiled himself as a political player from behind the scenes, using so-called investigative journalists for media assassinations, usually on the basis of half-truths, incitements, and sometimes even outright lies. The web portal’s policy was exclusively aimed at attacking the right-wing government and its officials. It has never been explained how exactly it was financed, as it did not sell any advertising space but, at the same time, could still afford to advertise on Odlazek’s major radio stations, where an advert can cost several thousand euros. As soon as the three executors of the web portal began writing for Odlazek’s other publications (Reporter, Večer, Svet24, etc.), it officially became clear that this was Martin Odlazek’s project, a way of getting even with the government he did not like.
The right-wing government was Odlazek’s enemy because it wanted to regulate the legal Wild West
Namely, the right-wing government wanted to regulate media ownership concentrations with an amendment to the Mass Media Act, which would have hit Odlazek’s media empire quite hard, as it was built by finding loopholes in the current legislation that allowed concentrations that were unhealthy for the free market. The Mass Media Act amendment contained concrete mechanisms that would effectively regulate the lack of media transparency and media concentrations in a European, sustainable way – through legislation and oversight of the relevant functions. The new legislation promised that Martin Odlazek would no longer be able to exploit the loopholes that allowed him to build a media empire and completely destroy certain branches of the media profession – for example, local radio stations and most of the press.
The Uncensored web portal as a media executor
The Uncensored web portal has done its job – many right-wing officials, as well as those on the left who dared to participate in right-wing governments, have been literally murdered by the media outlet in question. Just remember how they turned Zdravko Počivalšek into one of the most hated people in the country, exclusively through circumstantial evidence and the clever serving of half-truths, while he was previously considered one of the most popular politicians of the left-wing governments. Now, however, the executorial web portal will apparently become the official newsletter of the Golob government, a scandal that is worthy not only of a parliamentary investigation but also of the attention of international institutions.
Namely, the trio of Odlazek’s media executors, who defend themselves from lawsuits by claiming that they write together, have all taken important positions in Golob’s government. There is no more pretence – it is a very clear admission that this was a political project to enthrone the character and work of Robert Golob as the next Messiah of the left. And now, the time has come to pay the Uncensored journalists back.
Cirman, Modic and Vuković have officially become associated with the Freedom Movement party
The least important member of the trio, Tomaž Modic, has been given the least important post: he will participate in Šetinc Pašek’s Commission of Inquiry as an expert assistant. The media executive, who earned his living on a web portal that did not market advertising space but which everyone knew existed exclusively under the financial patronage of the tycoon Odlazek, will take part in the political investigation of the right-wing media outlets.
The other Uncensored journalist, Vesna Vuković, will take over public relations in Golob’s Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), investigative journalist Bojan Požar recently reported. Later, in his poor rhetoric, Golob announced that Vuković would be the party’s “chairwoman of public relations.” Let us remind you that while the state-owned Gen-I energy company was still under the leadership of Robert Golob, it regularly transferred money to the SEE M. & C. company, which was founded and for a long time also headed by Vuković. The electricity trader thus wired 103 thousand euros to the company in question, and the last payment was made in January this year. The Information Commissioner rejected the Siol web portal’s request for Gen-I to disclose its contracts with Vuković’s company. The latter is, therefore, a journalist of the Uncensored web portal, for which it is not clear how it was funded, but it is known that the journalist received money from the company of the current Prime Minister and will now also get a prestigious job with him.
And for the third member of the Uncensored group, journalist Primož Cirman, it has long been clear that he is a king of the extended PR network of Prime Minister Robert Golob, as h even chaired a press conference where the dominant media had anointed Golob as the next leftist choice. And now we are hearing whispers about Golob putting him in charge of the Siol web portal, which is owned by the state-owned Telekom Slovenije company. In the past, Golob had already made it clear that he would “happily employ Cirman anytime,” which should not be understood as Golob just offering Cirman a clerical position, because it is clear that Golob is not entirely clear about the line between himself as the representative of the executive branch of power and the state economy, since he operates on the principle of “L’État, c’est moi” (which translates to “I am the state”), and has thus offered Cirman a job at the Siol web portal, which even the primitive former MP Bandelli will now be reading again (as he explained in a recent tweet), when there will be people there again, who will not dare criticise him and those like him.
The Uncensored is taking over the power
Now that Odlazek’s Uncensored executors, who previously “independently and impartially” reported on the Janša government, will officially take over important positions in Golob’s government, it is high time for Mojca Šetinc Pašek to stop pretending and start investigating the real problems of the Slovenian media landscape – not the right-wing media, whose funding is completely transparent, but the business practices of a convicted tycoon for whom – of course, following his dictation – at least 80 percent of Slovenian print media writers and at least 70 percent of radio employees work for. We have never had a more obvious collusion of journalism and politics in Slovenia. The former public media journalist Šetinc Pašek, now a politician, with her political hunt of (right-wing) witches, is merely showing that she is part of the machinery that has turned the Slovenian media landscape into a cousin of the Russian one.