The Grupo Scandal Backfires on Crotian State TV

AIM Zagreb, December 19, 2000

One of the biggest media scandals in Croatia involving a clandestine contract struck by Miroslav Kutle, Vinko Grubisic, Ninoslav Pavic and Ivic Pasalic to establish control over as many publications and broadcasters as possible and gain a financial and political profit from manipulating the public has backfired, hitting once more the Croatian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), still the most influential media organization run by the state. Its unpreparedness to react timely, unprofessional approach, open lobbying in favor of one side and extremely biased reporting -- all that has returned in grand style to this TV station as if it never went away.

The Grupo Scandal, named after the company serving as a front for the group of four envisaged as a means of gaining control over the Croatian media, was revealed in the first issue of the newspaper Republika, a new national daily started by the owners of the Nacional weekly magazine. According to the copies of the documents the Republika published, the main actors of the scandal are the following: Miroslav Kutle, once a renowned tycoon and today an inmate at a prison near Zagreb; Ivic Pasalic, one-time advisor to late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and today the dismissed deputy speaker of the Croatian Parliament whom not even the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) wishes to see on its list of members; Vinko Grubisic, another Tudjman advisor who repeatedly attempted to take over as many media outlets as he could, and Ninoslav Pavic, the formal owner of Europapress Holding, the biggest media house in Croatia that currently publishes over 20 various newspapers. The four of them, thanks to a secret agreement they made splitting ownership of Grupo and the other companies Grupo founded or owned, took over a great number media organizations in Croatia -- up to 80 percent of all broadcasters, a large portion of newspapers and major newspaper distributors.

The documents showed that Ninoslav Pavic wasn't the owner of Europapress Holding as he used to claim, but is in possession of only five percent of the company, and that he had ceded 45 percents to his three partners. The other half of the company is owned by the Germans, who were taken aback by the scandal and no longer know who their actual partner is. Since the Grupo Scandal is key to understanding how the media operated during the last decade, Croatian state TV could not remain uninvolved. But in this media house everything was done to play the scandal down, so that even the Croatian Parliament had to ask that the CBC director, Mirko Galic, be dismissed. Galic was appointed by the six-member ruling coalition to this post while he was editor in chief of the Globus weekly magazine, published by Europapress Holding. When the first issue of the Republika appeared on newsstands, state TV was stricken by panic -- how should the scandal be dealt with without offending its "colleagues" at EPH and other news media who were suddenly faced with unpleasant news of not knowing who their employer actually was?

The first report was aired in the CBC's prime time news, but only after 10 minutes, in an obvious attempt to minimize its importance. In the next news show, Newsmakers, it was the most important piece of information. The show's editors, however, were reprimanded the very next morning for giving the Republika excessive air time which, in the opinion of the house's management, was completely undeserved. For the several following days total chaos reigned at the CBC, because Pavic and Grubisic were taken in by the police and questioned. This was extremely testing for the CBC journalists because they didn't know what to do to please their bosses. Thus they decided to do what they could: there was no video footage on the two being taken into custody, but their release from prison was a true celebration, accompanied by numerous statements by the scandal's main actors and their lawyers.

The Forum show, which was devoted to the scandal and whose guests included Denis Latin and Zrinka Vrabec Mojzes, two journalists who had had a good taste of what dealing with the media octopus is all about, also raised much dust. Several editors tried to prevent them from appearing on the show, offering in support a host of foolish reasons. But the appearance of Zeljka Antunovic, the deputy prime minister, was also considered unwelcome. One of the editors even called her on the phone to tell her that it would not be "wise" for her to participate in the show. Since all the bias shown by the state TV and its favoring of the group of media tycoons was generally explained by business links between CBC director Mirko Galic and Ninoslav Pavic, who gave him the position of Globus editor in chief and mediated in his later appointment as CBC director, Djurdja Adlesic, the chairperson of the Parliament committee for internal policy and national security and a member of the CBC council of long standing, demanded that Galic be dismissed because of partial reporting. When later she was to appear on state TV as a guest there was yet another bout of consternation: how would they explain to the director that a woman asking for his resignation was to appear in a broadcast of his media house? Galic, however, didn't hesitate a moment to use the state TV network for private purposes: in the prime time news he appeared in person to respond to Adlesic, saying that she knew nothing about the news media. In this, of course, he was repaying a debt to Pavic, because Adlesic did not hide that she expected the protagonists of the scandal to end up behind bars, and for a long time at that.

This, however, was not the end of the underground games and intrigues. Rumor has it that one of the editors is involved in a love affair, and Globus magazine planned to run a story on that even before the Grupo Scandal surfaced. When he learned that a journalist was preparing the story, the editor managed to prevent its publication, by intervening directly with Pavic. In exchange, the same editor took great care to supervise all state TV reports on Pavic and the Grupo Scandal, so that nothing more than what was already known about it would be revealed.

Because of such concealed censorship the state TV station was split in two groups, and the Croatian Journalist Association will soon discuss its reporting. If it weren't for the disputed Forum show, the public would never have understood what the scandal actually was all about, and what caused it. Ironically, the show was hosted by Tihomir Ladic, the husband of Djurdjica Klancir, a journalist who had to step down from the post of editor in chief of the Globus, after publishing an article on Miroslav Kutle. Being displeased with what the article said about him, Kutle demanded that Pavic dismiss Djurdjica Klancir. Pavic did this with a single phone call, but phones were still being tapped at the time, this conversation was recorded and later delivered to the media.

It is obvious that the Grupo Scandal will take with it a lot of dirt gathered on the Croatian media scene. It is already quite clear that a new Croatian Broadcasting Act will force all current editors to resign, and that they, including the incumbent CBC director, will not be re-appointed. The scandal has yet another interesting aspect, however: it has shown once again the true extent of corruption in the state TV network. News reports, both those aired and those withheld, are but commodities to pay for past services, or services yet to be rendered. It may well be said that information and objectivity are two features that have yet to earn the right to exist at Croatian state television network.

Milivoj Djilas

(AIM)