Slovenian media landscape was surprised by the news that the media king of Slovenia, Martin Odlazek, will buy another one of the central Slovenian media outlets – the newspaper Večer (Evening). Before that, he also bought Primorske novice (Coastal news). With the purchase of Večer, Martin Odlazek will become the Slovenian version of the so-called Citizen Kane, where all key media projects will be overseen by the transitional setup of the left-wing political option.
The mainstream media, owned by the transitional tycoons, like to problematise the ownership of our media outlets, as well as a few others, which present themselves as differently thinking or alternative media. Namely, it is the central media outlets in Slovenia that control at least ninety percent of the media space in Slovenia. This group includes the national media outlet RTV Slovenia and the privately-owned media outlets POP TV/Kanal A, Dnevnik, Delo, Mladina, Večer, and the media network owned by Martin Odlazek.
According to Topnews, it seems that another change of ownership in the dominant media is bound to happen soon. In the past, it was reported that two major newspaper houses, Dnevnik and Večer, were supposed to merge. But as it turns out, this did not happen. The aforementioned media outlet reported that the central newspaper from the Štajerska region, Večer, will now be bought by one of the media companies owned by Martin Odlazek. However, this is not the first deal that Večer and Martin Odlazek have made. Since 2019, the newspaper is owned by Uroš Hakl and Sašo Todorovič. As early as April 2019, the Večer Group sold Odlazek the entire portfolio of magazines published under its auspices. Večer magazines were bought by Svet24, Tretje magazines were bought by Media24 – the company for information, which also publishes Pomurski Vestnik and Radio Maxi. This raises the question of whether the possible purchase of Večer will exceed the concentration of ownership in the media market by the media companies owned by Martin Odlazek and his family members. We sent a few press questions regarding this matter to Večer, Media24 and the Competition Protection Agency, but we have not received their answers yet.
The media empire protects Martin Odlazek from obvious prosecutions in Slovenia
Martin Odlazek became the media king of Slovenia during the times of the left-wing governments. Odlazek’s media empire is reminiscent of one of the best films of the 20th century, Citizen Kane, in which the legendary director Orson Welles exposes William Hearst’s media empire. Odlazek works in a similar manner, with the help of the left-wing political pole. With the help of Ivan Kralj (despite Kralj denying that this happened), he recently took over the largest radio network in Slovenia, Infonet, previously owned by Leon Oblak. With this, Odlazek gained the majority media control over radio stations in our country.
Well, as our sources tell us, advertisements for the web portal Necenzurirano (Uncensored) frequently appear on radio stations owned by Odlazek, which indicates the suspicious operating of this web portal, as they do not record any of this in their final reports.
Odlazek’s media empire is joined in the company Media 24, which is controlled by the company Salamon, the umbrella organisation of Odlazek’s media operations. IN this empire, they publish the daily sports newspaper Ekipa and the political tabloid Svet24. Among other things, they also publish the following magazines: Zarjo, Lady, Vklop, Obrazi, Nova, Salamonov oglasnik, Bodi zdrava, Auto Bild Slovenija, Liza/Maja, Naša žena/ Ženska, Reporter, Dom2/ Stanovanje, Top!Smrklja, EkipaSN Revija, Jej zdravo, Pomagaj si sam, Rože in vrt/ Zeleni raj, Dolenjski list, Štajerski tednik, Čvek v križankah, Kaj veš, Salamonov genialec, Salamonov ugankar, Slikovne križanke, Kih, Lady Križanke, Muzika, Politikin zabavnik, Vestnik, Science Ilustrated, History, Dobra karma, KIH Suduko, Lep vrt, Naš dom, and Štiri tačke.
Similarly, Odlazek’s empire also controls the radio networks in Slovenia. Despite the general denial of the arms “king” Ivan Kralj, Odlazek would not have been able to pull off all of the controversial operations on the media market in Slovenia without his help. Namely, it was Odlazek who managed to purchase most of the media outlets, with the help of the left-wing political pole (one of his more prominent aides is the leader of the SD parliamentary group, Matjaž Han). For a while now, Odlazek’s empire has been hanging by a thread, as it would collapse in a second without state funds. Despite the mainstream media pointing out that Odlazek’s media empire will not survive for much longer, it was saved by state donations in 2020.
As we have already pointed out, the former printing baron is becoming one of the main protagonists of the media space in Slovenia. Therefore, we should ask ourselves what is happening with the Competition Protection Agency, which should make sure that there is a normal distribution of ownership among the media in Slovenia. This is just additional proof that the transitional network in Slovenia is allowed to do whatever it wants. This makes them feel untouchable when it comes to Slovenia’s law and order.
Luka Perš
