One of Slovakia’s most popular daily newspapers, SME, has been sold. Namav, the new owner of 50 percent of the publishing house Petit Press that operates the SME daily, is a subsidiary of the SITA news agency, with the Penta financial group presenting itself as a “financial partner of SITA and Igor Grosaft in the transaction”, according to a Penta press release cited by medialne.etrend.sk which belongs to Penta.
Namav was founded in August, with its managing directors being SITA owner Igor Grosaft and SITA director Ivan Samel. When asked by medialne.etrend.sk why Penta was buying the stake in Petit Press indirectly, in cooperation with a partner, Penta spokesman Martin Danko said that Grosaft began to be interested in buying the publisher earlier, in the first quarter of 2014. Penta at the time was holding talks on buying Trend Holding (publisher of the Trend economic weekly) and Spolocnost 7 Plus (comprising of the news portals Plus 7 Dni and Plus Jeden Den), both of which it eventually bought in September.
The current leadership of the SME editorial desk on Tuesday resigned, stating on website opentat.sk that “by purchasing the media, Penta is acquiring a new tool to influence the legislative environment that has importance for its success in highly regulated sectors, such as health care. This creates a conflict of interest for journalists”, stated the outgoing SME desk leadership, which is about to set up a new daily. Penta co-owner Jaroslav Haščák commented on the project of a new daily by stating that “it can only be good if such competition emerges, and I sincerely keep my fingers crossed for them. Nevertheless, let's call it with a proper name. It isn't about a fight for freedom of speech and democracy, and those who have made this decision are neither more, nor less journalists and media entrepreneurs than their colleagues in other publications”.
Haščák also stated earlier that he disagrees with the editors' “attempts to present their private opinions as 'the public interest'. I'm not leaving the SME daily with an easy mind and I'm not whistling to myself”, TASR was told on Tuesday by SME editor-in-chief Matúš Kostolný who is leaving the daily along with his four deputies - Tomáš Bella, Lukáš Fila, Konštantín Čikovský and Juraj Javorský - in response to the acquisition of SME's publisher Petit Press by a SITA news agency subsidiary, which has the Penta financial group in the background. Kostolný, who spent 20 years at SME, said that he views the entry of Penta to SME as a threat to independent and free journalism. At the same time, he and his four deputies announced on the internet that they will set up a new independent daily newspaper. Kostolný’s open letter from last week, in which he threatened to leave the daily if Penta entered it, was signed by more than 60 members of the editorial desk.
