By: Domen Mezeg/ Nova24TV
The Reporter magazine is considered part of the propaganda apparatus of the media-trash empire of Martin Odlazek, just like the “independent” portal Necenzuirano. This time, Bojan Požar is reporting on the Reporter’s parasitism at taxpayer’s nipples. In all these years, it is said to have drawn a total of almost five million euros. It is a medium that, according to all market laws, should have failed a long time ago. The single edition was sold in less than 800 copies. The Reporter’s case exposes the wider practice of controversial financing of Odlazek’s propaganda.
According to Požareport, the Reporter is considered a “magazine of lies” intended for “special discredits”. These, however, are generously financed from taxpayers’ pockets and are indirectly owned by garbage tycoon Martin Odlazek through family member Tara Miklić. Odlazek has already been sentenced, but he took over the magazine in 2016. The list for discredits consists of political, business and media networks connected to the garbage mafia. It is also no secret that Odlazek actually even “lends” his propaganda apparatus to both political parties and individuals.
For a better understanding of the whole story, it is necessary to go back in time a bit. At the same time, Marjan Šarec’s private consultant Damir Črnčec should be singled out. Already during Šarec’s government, Črnčec worked as a state functionary in the field of national security, and today he works at the Ministry of Defence and has close relations with Prime Minister Robert Golob. They are meeting secretly. He is also a former classmate of Reporter’s editor-in-chief Silvester Šurla and is said to have influenced the content of many articles in the background, especially through journalist Igor Kršinar. Let’s go back to Odlazek.
During the last two years of Janez Janša’s government, especially during the last election campaign, he first bet on Aleksandar Čeferin and Tomaž Vesel, as he saw them in the role of Prime Minister. The latter also got a job with Odlazek after the end of his term at the Audit Court. In the end, he also strongly supported the new face of the transition left – Robert Golob. He did not hesitate to support Golob, as his victory was crucial to the survival of Odlazek’s business empire with the help of the government and taxpayers. It is known that the journalists of the garbage empire conducted pre-election roundtables where the electro oligarch announced his grand return to political waters.
Even the joker Denis Avdić was “harnessed” to the propaganda apparatus
For the past two years, the entire Odlazek’s propaganda apparatus has worked in concert, both tabloids and radio stations. For example, on Radio 1, under the guise of news, Necenzurirano portal’s articles were read to listeners by journalist Denis Avdić. The latter became a political propagandist overnight, making fun of Janša’s government, while he and Golob chatted amiably during the show. Now Odlazek has already issued invoices for the election campaign to Golob. First of all, he expects the return of his former key company Salomon Ltd, which is currently, not yet legally binding, already fully owned by the state (through a bad bank).
It is a late judgment, so there is little chance of a return, and that is why Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič and the new chairman of the board of DUTB Žiga Debeljak are urgently looking for a solution to the dilemma in a way that would not be too obviously illegal. At the same time, Odlazek expects continued budgetary financing of his media apparatus, as it would quickly collapse without state money. In the case of Reporter alone, it is an almost dizzying five million euros. So much public money has been pumped in, more or less directly, and the rest of the funding comes from other channels and other related companies.
Reporter Media does not have a single employee: They all work through the disability company Salomon
Let’s remember: Odlazek took over Reporter through the company Reporter Media, and the 100% straw owner is Tara Milikić, also known as the private partner of Odlazek’s son Nejc. Odlazek paid out around 100,000 from the former owner Boštjan Kreft (Prava smer Ltd), and at the same time he was supposed to cash in about 250,000 in claims that Kreft allegedly owed the garbage tycoon for printing the magazine. This is how Reporter became part of the trash empire, and the magazine through the publisher, i.e., the Reporter Media company and its proprietary connections, both indirectly and directly acquired a little less than 4.5 million euros in public funds.
At the time of the issue by Kreft’s company, it already drew a good 424 thousand from the budget. So far, the magazine has received the most financial resources from the Ministry of Culture (directly around 230 thousand). The height of the corruption of Reporter journalists is that they hysterically attack even the media, which received a 10-fold lower amount of public funding from the same title, i.e., the Ministry of Culture, based on public tenders. It is also extremely interesting that Reporter Media does not have any employees, because they are all employed by the disability company Salomon, a company that has been generously co-financed by taxpayers for years.
Without public funds, it would have collapsed a long time ago: The printed edition of the magazine is sold at 800 copies
However, the business of the magazine should be of particular interest to FURS. The company generates between 800 and 900 thousand euros in revenue annually, but it does not have a single employee. At the same time, almost all the money that the company receives goes through the costs of materials, goods, and services. Without abundant public funding, the Reporter would have collapsed long ago. The printed edition of the magazine is said to have sold around 800 copies, and the sale of online articles was discontinued some time ago, as no one was willing to pay for them.