Reporter: Subotić not funding B92

B92 journalist Jugoslav Cosic denied speculation Stanko Subotic aka Cane funds both him and the B92 media company. He said that a court process will be launched regarding the statements made by Montenegrin opposition leader Nebojsa Medojevic, adding that he did not make a mistake by letting Subotic call in and speak during a show he was hosting in which Medojevic was the guest. Reporter: Subotic not funding B92 Cosic, along with three other journalists, was a guest on B92 TV's Sunday night talk show, when he said that the citizens would be left in the dark if there weren't for such actions. “My personal civil and professional belief is that if there were no RTV B92, along with several other magazines and newspapers, the Serbian citizens would only know what is happening in The Farm (reality show),” Cosic said. Subotic is wanted in Serbia as one of the suspected organizers of the 1990s cigarette smuggling operations. Last Monday, he phoned in from Switzerland to accuse Serbian businessmen Milan Beko and Miroslav Miskovic of using the money they owed him to buy the Port of Belgrade company and Vecernje Novosti daily. He said that the huge affair surrounding the privatization of Vecernje Novosti in 2006 were a source of some of the initial “uproar”. “It is media aggression on B92 and on me personally, because he claimed that Miroslav Miskovic and Milan Beko took money from him to by the Belgrade Port and Novosti. The majority owners of Novosti are three foreign companies why own 25, 25, and 12 percent of shares, which is 62 percent of shares owned by foreigners. When you deal with buying and selling media, the final thing that happens once an agreement is reached, is an anti-monopoly confirmation by the commission that says that the buyer will not have a monopoly if he buys the paper. And that is what we are waiting for at this moment,” Cosic said. It is estimated that the German company VAC , which owns papers in many countries, could have a monopoly on the market, since it owns Politika, and Novi Sad-based Dnevnik as well. Weekly Vreme journalist Milos Vasic said that the whole story has a much wider regional dimension involved with the cigarette smuggling activities of the 1990s and the media privatization that followed in the next decade. “As we look at these more serious 'jobs'and remember what happened from 94-96, and we enter the essence of the tobacco affair, and the awful criminal affair of the murders of Pukanic and Franic, we see who Sreten Jocic’s best friend is, when you look at the type of things that were done from 1993 to 2001, things become very interesting. Out of nowhere, multinational companies appear, tobacco and media-related, and some ties can be made that show us that the same companies appear as majority owners of Nacional (weekly) in Zagreb and other media groups I will not name. It is a very serious story, a lot more serious than it appears at first glance,” Vasic said. Daily Blic journalist Vuk Cvijic said that Subotic’s appearance on the scene again has to do with the investigation into the money of suspected drug boss Darko Saric. “A demand for his arrest was filed in Serbia in June 2007, and the privatization of the Belgrade Port was in 2005. Five years have passed, so why did he chose to come out and make statements now? It’s symptomatic that these serious investigations are being led into the laundering of Darko Saric’s money, which the investigation says we earned from cocaine. It’s symptomatic that the Italian prosecutor publicly said that Subotic was responsible for the laundering of money from cigarette smuggling,” Cvijic said.

Reporter: Subotić not funding B92

Ćosić, along with three other journalists, was a guest on B92 TV's Sunday night talk show, when he said that the citizens would be left in the dark if there weren't for such actions.

“My personal civil and professional belief is that if there were no RTV B92, along with several other magazines and newspapers, the Serbian citizens would only know what is happening in The Farm (reality show),” Ćosić said.

Subotić is wanted in Serbia as one of the suspected organizers of the 1990s cigarette smuggling operations. Last Monday, he phoned in from Switzerland to accuse Serbian businessmen Milan Beko and Miroslav Mišković of using the money they owed him to buy the Port of Belgrade company and Večernje Novosti daily.

He said that the huge affair surrounding the privatization of Večernje Novosti in 2006 were a source of some of the initial “uproar”.

“It is media aggression on B92 and on me personally, because he claimed that Miroslav Mišković and Milan Beko took money from him to by the Belgrade Port and Novosti. The majority owners of Novosti are three foreign companies why own 25, 25, and 12 percent of shares, which is 62 percent of shares owned by foreigners. When you deal with buying and selling media, the final thing that happens once an agreement is reached, is an anti-monopoly confirmation by the commission that says that the buyer will not have a monopoly if he buys the paper. And that is what we are waiting for at this moment,” Ćosić said.

It is estimated that the German company VAC , which owns papers in many countries, could have a monopoly on the market, since it owns Politika, and Novi Sad-based Dnevnik as well.

Weekly Vreme journalist Miloš Vasić said that the whole story has a much wider regional dimension involved with the cigarette smuggling activities of the 1990s and the media privatization that followed in the next decade.

“As we look at these more serious 'jobs'and remember what happened from 94-96, and we enter the essence of the tobacco affair, and the awful criminal affair of the murders of Pukanić and Franić, we see who Sreten Jocić’s best friend is, when you look at the type of things that were done from 1993 to 2001, things become very interesting. Out of nowhere, multinational companies appear, tobacco and media-related, and some ties can be made that show us that the same companies appear as majority owners of Nacional (weekly) in Zagreb and other media groups I will not name. It is a very serious story, a lot more serious than it appears at first glance,” Vasić said.

Daily Blic journalist Vuk Cvijić said that Subotić’s appearance on the scene again has to do with the investigation into the money of suspected drug boss Darko Šarić.

“A demand for his arrest was filed in Serbia in June 2007, and the privatization of the Belgrade Port was in 2005. Five years have passed, so why did he chose to come out and make statements now? It’s symptomatic that these serious investigations are being led into the laundering of Darko Šarić’s money, which the investigation says we earned from cocaine. It’s symptomatic that the Italian prosecutor publicly said that Subotić was responsible for the laundering of money from cigarette smuggling,” Cvijić said.