Tepic: Telekom wants to shut down N1, Nova S

N1

Opposition MP Marinika Tepic told N1 on Tuesday that the state-owned Telekom Serbia wants to destroy the SBB cable provider to stop the public from watching N1 and Nova S.

According to Tepic, the Serbian authorities want households to transfer to Telekom in order to keep the public in the dark. She said that the state-owned telecommunications company has had dealings with the owner of Prva TV and B92 Srdjan Milovanovic who demanded payment of 38 million Euro from SBB for the re-broadcasting of his channels. Prva and B92 have national frequency licenses which means that they can be viewed free of charge with a simple TV antenna. Milovanovic is the twin brother of one of the most senior Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) officials in the southern city of Nis.

Tepic said that Telekom paid Milovanovic 190 million Euro for his Kopernikus cable provider which is five times more than it was worth, allowing him to buy the two TV stations and added that she expects organized crime prosecutors to interview Telekom CEO Vladimir Lucic about the sale.

“Once the whole thing broke out we learned that Telekom is still paying the two national stations, the same private individual who was given the money to buy the stations for the benefit of the regime with the intention of moving people from SBB to Telekom,” the head of the United (Ujedinjeni) MP group said.

Tepic, a senior official of the opposition Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) recalled that Telekom gave businessman Igor Zezelj 38 million Euro of public funds for a fictitious job allowing him to buy the Kurir tabloid and set up Kurir TV. “The pattern is the same – the goal is to keep Serbia in the dark and transfer people to Telekom’s channels, most of which were used for pro-regime propaganda,” she said.

She called the public to resist pressure to transfer to Telekom from SBB. SBB Subscribers in several cities have received unsigned notes urging them to cancel their SBB contracts and transfer to Telekom.