Opposition party calls for investigation into Telekom Serbia

“Telekom Serbia’s acquisition of Kopernikus and other cable operators has jeopardized the ownership rights of several million of its shareholders and caused a deterioration of media freedom in Serbia,” a PSG press release said.

It recalled that the Telekom dispute with the United Group led to 300,000 households loosing access to N1 TV which means that about a million people can’t watch that station. “This caused a fierce reaction from the public which accused the ruling party of imposing media darkness with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic joining in the defense of Telekom,” it said and added that “an entire business construction” is in the background starting from 2018 when Telekom Serbia paid 310 million Euro for three cable operators at unrealistically high prices.

“The money paid at the excessively high rate was used to buy shares in Prva and O2 TV stations (which have national frequencies). The State Auditing Institution and the prosecution did not react following public protests,” the PSG said, adding that the Serbian parliament then approved an oversight committee suggestion not to pay dividends to share holders and leave some 10 billion Dinars in profits in the company.

Telekom Serbia shares were given to Serbian citizens who were entitled to receive shares in state-owned companies.

“That inflicted damages on several million Telekom shareholders and the rest of the country because the dividends and accompanying taxes were not paid into the budget,” the press release said.