Srpski telegraf
Srpski telegraf was founded in 2016. The first issue came out symbolically on March 24 - the anniversary of the beginning of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. This media is a tabloid, and in terms of content and editorial policy it is pro-government and nationalist. On their pages, representatives of the opposition and critics of the ruling regime are often confronted and targeted.
Since its establishment, Srpski Telegraf has been at the top of the list of media outlets that violate the Journalistic Code of Serbia. According to the latest monitoring results of the Press Council for the period 1 October 2022 – 31 January 2023, Srpski telegraf ranks first in the number of violations with 642 texts. Also, according to the monitoring of the Raskrinkavanje portal, this media outlet published more than 200 fake news stories in 2021 alone, which the analysis showed to be completely inaccurate, manipulative or news stories that had no evidence for their claims.
Despite numerous violations and the publication of fake news, Srpski telegraf regularly receives money from the state in competitions for co-financing media content. Its founders and owners include former editors of the Kurir daily, Milan Lađević and Saša Milovanović.
Audience Share
5.13%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid content: 50 RSD per copy (2023)
Media Companies / Groups
Medijska mreža
Ownership Structure
The publisher of Srpski telegraf is the company Media Network, which is owned by Lazar Simić, Milan Lađević and Saša Milovanović.
Voting Rights
The right to vote is proportional to the share of the owner.
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
2016
Affiliated Interests Founder
Was the editor-in-chief of the daily Kurir until the end of 2015. That year, the Kurir tried to take over the management of the daily Politika, which led to conflicts with the government and the Serbian Progressive Party.
In November 2015, the famous front page of the Kurir "Serbia, Sorry" was published, as an introduction to an article by the then owner of the Kurir, Aleksandar Rodić, in which he apologizes to the citizens of Serbia for, as he states, being forced to be part of Aleksandar Vucic's propaganda team. This conflict between Rodić and Vucic lasted several months, with mutual accusations and war with the pro-government media. Lađević was even questioned by the police, which was presented by the Kurir as pressure on them and an attack on free speech. A few weeks later, Lađević was removed from his position as editor of Kurir, and in January 2016 he founded the Media Network, a company that publishes Srpski telegraf. Kurir soon returned to its usual editorial policy. Prior to Kurir, Lađević worked as an editor in the daily Blic.
Passed away in June 2022. He was a businessman who, in addition to the media, also had a company for trade in wood and building materials.
Is a lawyer from Belgrade. He worked in a law firm whose partner was Igor Isailović, a lawyer of the former mayor of Belgrade, and now the minister of finance, Siniša Mali. Also, Isailović is a business partner of Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
Is the director of three companies: Media Network, MM Web Code - a daughter company of Media Network, which publishes the Republika.rs portal - and the construction company Raffoul, which is owned by Syrian citizens. There is no information on her work biography in public. In open business databases, it can be seen that in 2020, Sanja was the director of the Optimum Consulting company, which was originally owned by lawyer Igor Isailović, who is a close associate of Finance Minister Siniša Mali and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
Was a journalist for the daily Blic. He became the editor of the newly formed portal Tanjug Info, which was partly owned by Saša Mirković, a former member of the Serbian Progressive Party, in 2015. The establishment of this media came to the attention of the public because the name of the state agency Tanjug, which was in the process of privatization at that time, was used. Mirković stated in the media that he only wanted to save the tradition of the largest Serbian brand. In the meantime, Mirković left the Serbian Progressive Party, Tanjug Info was shut down, and Vuković became the editor of Srpski telegraf.
Has been the editor-in-chief of Srpski telegraf since 2021. He has been in journalism since 2005. He worked as a journalist for 10 years in the media company Ringier AG, then as a sports journalist in the newspaper Sport - daily sports newspaper. He has been with Srpski telegraf since March 2016, where he first held the position of sports editor, then worked as the head of the board.
Affiliated Interests other important people
Igor Isailović and Lazar Simić worked at the same law office.
Isailović, who is close to the current Minister of Finance Siniša Mali, also cooperated with Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.
This lawyer is often hired by Nikola Petrović, the best man of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and Milutin Folić, the former first city planner of the City of Belgrade, and Isailović's most controversial client is the notorious businessman from the north of Kosovo, Zvonko Veselinović, whom the lawyer helped to found companies.
Isailović appears in the "Pandora Papers" because he established a secret account in the British Virgin Islands.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing data
Market Share
Missing data
Further Information
Meta Data
Missing data on printed and sold circulation, market share and advertising revenue. Financial data is available only for the company that publishes the media, but not for the media itself. The imprint of the editorial office is available in the printed publication of the newspaper, and the official data on ownership are publicly available on the website of the Business Registers Agency. Although ownership data is available through public databases, there have been doubts about the true owners of this tabloid since its inception. The two owners are former editors of Kurir, which are known to the public, and there is not much publicly available information about the lawyer Lazar Simić, except that he used to work in a law office together with Igor Isailović.
