6.17. The oligarchs take over the media

At the end of the period covered in this chapter of the History of Corruption, there was a significant realignment of forces in the media field. The crisis of declining costs and slow transformation to new digital forms of subscription or other sources of revenue persisted in both Czech and Slovak media. This situation was exploited by well-known financiers who entered well-known media houses on favourable terms. Although they mostly denied it at least at the beginning, they saw the media as a tool to influence public opinion, influence politics or leverage in the competitive struggle. 

One of the pioneers of this new media business was billionaire Ivan Zach. Only years later it turned out that he had indirectly controlled TV Prima since 2009. Jaromír Soukup, who expanded his media and marketing activities in 2000 with the Empresa Media publishing house and in 2012 with Televizia Barrandov, also succeeded as a media big businessman. 

Although the most significant step in the oligarchization of the media is generally considered to be the large acquisition by Andrej Babiš, the first significant move in the media field was the business forays of Zdeněk Bakala. He first took a co-ownership stake in Respekt and, at the height of the financial crisis in 2009, took advantage of the situation to buy the Economia publishing house for around CZK 2 billion. Bakala had no political ambitions, but the media scene faced a big test with this move. Bakala’s reputation was in danger because of the OKD flats case, and a number of Economia titles naturally had to cover topics related to Bakala’s business. 

Bakala, however, was not alone in his taste for acquisitions on the media market during this period. The controversial billionaire František Savov, for example, was initially hidden but later admittedly active there. He owned the Mladá fronta publishing house, which published several economic and professional titles such as Týdeník Euro and E15. He later sold part of the media to another billionaire, Daniel Křetínský. 

He joined the media oligarchs in 2013 by purchasing the Ringier ČR publishing house, which he renamed Czech News Center. He also developed Czech media activities in the following years and expanded abroad. 

The acquisition of the Mafra publishing house by Andrej Babiš in 2013 caused the greatest response. Although the up-and-coming politician with massive marketing credibility said unbelievable platitudes about buying media as a hobby or that he did not know exactly why, his efforts to influence the content of the media house’s key media outlets soon became obvious. Dozens of journalists left these titles in protest, sparking the emergence of a new independent scene and definitively rewriting the map of Czech media. After years in politics, however, he handed over a large part of the media empire to another controversial billionaire, Radovan Vitek. Babiš continues to concentrate mainly on tabloid media and social media campaigns. 

Following the example of its predecessors, the Penta Group also entered the media market in the following years. However, it concentrated mainly on Slovak media, where there are also several known cases where it tried to use titles to promote its own influence on public opinion.