Serbia’s Telekom is financially supporting the Minacord media company, i.e. television K1, whose owners are singer Zeljko Joksimovic and Manja Grcic, who also appeared as partners of the state for the news agency “Tanjug”. Telekom Srbija also invested in the development company of Igor Zezelj, Wireless media and its daughter company Mondo Inc.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Minacord Media took out four loans worth around 4 million euros, and as a guarantee for their repayment attached contracts with Telekom on the distribution of K1 on the mts cable network.
Vesna Radojevic, journalist and editor of the „Raskrinkavanje“ portal, assessed that Manja Grcic is someone „who is ready to commit to everything so that everything goes according to plan.“
„Manja Grcic was the manager of B92 television for many years. The people who worked there told me that after SNS came to power, she was in charge of disciplining people, editing the program so that it was in the hands of SNS, and even removing some shows, Olja Beckovic also talked about that very publicly“, said Radojevic in the N1 television documentary „Thorn in the Eye“.
She also explained how Minacord received several loan agreements based only on cooperation with Telekom.
„So, it was someone who was ready to pledge that everything would go smoothly, that no one would be having issues, that the First Deputy Prime Minister would not have problems at that moment, that the Prime Minister would not have problems afterwards. So that everything should be as it should be. And on the basis of those contracts, Minacord Media already has several loan agreements, that is, from commercial banks only on the basis of that cooperation with Telekom”, she said.
Zeljko Joksimovic and Manja Grcic also appeared as state partners for the „Tanjug“ news agency, which they leased for 10 years, and then started Tanjug television.
Radojevic revealed that they took over Tanjug for some 628 thousand euros.
„So, it’s a brand, it’s a trademark, it’s an archive, it has a name, it has contracts with numerous state institutions on program coverage and so on. Therefore, it is not some insignificant agency – on the contrary“, believes the journalist.
Radojica Milosavljevic joined the duo Joksimovic-Grcic in this business regarding Tanjug. This is a businessman who became known to the public for buying up 11 local media, primarily television channels. Milosavljevic „bragged“ that in addition to the above, he also has a Health Center, which employs 40 workers, a school for industrial management, and a factory that enables him to acquire that kind of money.
„Radojica Milosavljevic bought some televisions for the price of slightly better shoes, for 250 euros, but he also overpaid for some. So we came up with a figure of around 250 thousand euros that he gave to some 10-11 media outlets in Serbia,“ said Radojevic.
Telekom Srbija also invested up to 38 million euros in the development company of Igor Zezelj, Wireless media and its daughter company Mondo Inc.
Vice President of the Freedom and Justice Party, Marinika Tepic, said that „the contract concluded by SNS Telekom management with Igor Zezelj was financed with 38 million euros of our money”.
„This document is also proof of the scandalous crime, the organized crime of Vucic’s mercenaries, who influence the media in this way – to praise him and to cover up and stifle any criticism from the other side, and keep us in the media darkness. This is also proof of how Igor Zezelj became a media tycoon and megamillionaire overnight thanks to our money”, said Tepic.
Radojevic believes that it is „a completely unreal contract“ because one “cannot find a single argument in favour of Telekom signing such a contract“.
Two months after signing the multi-million dollar contract with Telekom, Igor Zezelj bought the Kurir tabloid. In his response to N1′ questions about cooperation with Telekom Srbija, Igor Zezelj states:
„We will repeat once again: the acquisition of Adria Media Group was realised from the funds of the company Mondo Inc. and the owner, with full compliance with all applicable regulations. Cooperation with Telekom Srbija implies exclusively a commercial-business relationship based on market principles.“
