ŠOLAK’S ARTILLERY NETWORK – Highgate, BFMI, and N1 as Weapons Against United Group’s Competitors
The Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI) has authored a new report on the media landscape in the region and will present it today in the European Parliament. On the surface, this might seem uncontroversial, but in reality, it is yet another staged performance where nothing is as it appears.
Firstly, BFMI is not an independent organisation. It is an NGO with strong ties to United Group, operating in the interest of the company. The BFMI report is not an impartial analysis of the media space in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece, and Slovenia. Instead, it is a tool used by United Group to discredit competitors in these countries and protect its business interests..
Predictably, United Group’s media outlets are expected to link this report to the European Parliament in an attempt to lend it credibility. However, the truth is that the time and venue for the presentation were arranged by Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovačev, whose actions in certain situations worked in favor of the United Group.
Kovačev has secured a modest room for this gathering, listed in the European Parliament building as Room A5F385. The connection between United Group and BFMI is further evidenced by the participation of N1 Television’s News Director, Igor Božić, in the report’s presentation and accompanying panel discussion, with Peter Horrocks serving as the moderator.
Interestingly, Horrocks, a veteran of the media industry, is introduced in event announcements as a former BBC Director and a current member of the Content Board of the UK’s Ofcom (Office of Communications). However, what has been deliberately concealed is a critical fact that undermines his alleged independence and impartial expertise: Horrocks is simultaneously a member of BFMI’s Management Committee and an advisor to the Editorial Board of N1 Television, which is owned by United Group.
This is not the first time Šolak’s efforts to discredit competition have originated in the European Parliament. As Kurir previously reported, this businessman has developed a sophisticated system allowing him to advance his interests within various institutions, both in Serbia and abroad. One of the most vivid examples of how this operates was the instance where Šolak’s lobbyists made every effort to influence the content of the European Parliament’s report on Serbia and the mention of Telekom Serbia in it.
At the time, Kurir uncovered that since May 2021, United Group, alongside its lobbyists, had held at least three meetings with representatives of the European Parliament, all officially recorded. To handle these affairs, Šolak engaged Highgate, a London-based consultancy firm, with Dragica Pilipović, United Group’s Vice President for Corporate Affairs, taking a leading role. Pilipović, notably, entered Šolak’s top management team directly from her position as a director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. No matter the target, Šolak’s mechanism for eliminating competition operates on the same principles and employs the same methods, using opaque channels to infiltrate various institutions and transform them into protectors of his interests and enablers of his continued wealth accumulation.