Blic (newspaper)
Encyclopedia
Blic is a tabloid daily newspaper in Serbia
owned by Ringier AG group from Switzerland
.
Started in 1996, it has gone through a slight format change during the mid 2000s to include more in-depth coverage, but it is still, as its name aptly suggest, a paper devoted to quick, concise, attention-grabbing news form. Blic has at times had circulations of 250,000, but now it is closer to 220,000.http://www.ringier.ch/index.cfm?rub=184
controls Blic through its local subsidiary, Ringier d.o.o. (formerly named Blic Press d.o.o.) a limited liability company
. The company's current CEO is Jelena Drakulić.
Vienna Capital Partners
(VCP) previously had a stake in the company.
) and variously themed supplements to Blic newspapers.
-based businessmen that included Peter Kelbel and Aleksandar Lupšić, who simultaneously bought Bratislava
's Nový čas
. At the time of his investment in Blic, Lupšić had strong ties to Milošević's wife Mira Marković and her party Yugoslav Left
(JUL). The first issue of Blic appeared on September 16, 1996 thus becoming the 10th daily newspaper to be published in FR Yugoslavia at the time (the other nine being Politika
, Borba
, Dnevnik
, Pobjeda
, Narodne novine
, Večernje novosti
, Politika ekspres
, Naša borba, and Dnevni telegraf
).
Prior to that, the same group took over a Prague
newspaper where they gained valuable publishing experience which encouraged them to go on further. For their Serbian operation, the owners got seasoned journalist Manojlo "Manjo" Vukotić to be the editor-in-chief.
Just like many other media operations in Serbia from the 1990s and beyond, Blics ownership structure was murky as well. It was controlled by an entity called Blic Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company registered in Belgrade in March 1996. Blic Press' owners according to the Serbian Business Register were listed to be Milorad Perovic, a resident of Belgrade (51%) and Liechtenstein
-based company named Mitsui Securities Eastern Europe Fund AG (49%) whose owners were not listed.
Starting out, Blic was a typical stripped-down tabloid with short and simple stories, as well as a lot of entertainment content. Its first issues were circulated in 50,000 copies per day with the price set at 1 dinar. It also ran a havily advertised sweepstakes with the grand prize being a Volkswagen Polo
Classic car and DM30,000. As a result of the sweepstakes, the paper's circulation increased by 30% within only a couple of weeks of the first issue.
and SPO
parties made big gains at the expense of Milošević's SPS
party, which got beaten in many municipalities. Milošević refused to recognize the results, thus sparking a huge outpouring of street protests. Blic capitalized on this to further its position on the market through fair coverage of the events ignored by the Milošević
regime-controlled media. The decision turned out to be the winner in the short term – circulation rapidly grew to 200,000 copies a day - but it also drew the ire of the regime.
In the circumstances when state media made virtually no mention of the protests and the reporting of the independent media was insufficient on the subject, Blic made a gutsy decision to devote a sizable part of its paper every day to the protests. Expectedly, the Milošević regime lashed back immediately – it restricted Blics access to print and distribution facilities as the state printing house refused to print any more than 80,000 copies of the paper. The problem first appeared when it came time to print the November 29th, 1996 holiday 4-day issue (FR Yugoslavia at the time still celebrated the old SFR Yugoslavia's day of the republic) as state owned Borba printing facility informed the Blic staff that it's not able to print the holiday issue in the requested 235,000 copies "due to technical reasons" and instead offered to print about a third of that. The holiday issue still appeared on newsstands in projected circulation as some of it got printed at Borba and the rest in privately owned ABC Produkt. However, the issue that appeared was a complete whitewash, abandoning the paper's new concept and going back to entertainment and frivolity. Forty three journalists employed at Blic immediately publicly distanced themselves from the issue, and editor-in-chief Manjo Vukotić and his deputy Cvijetin Milivojević resigned in protest. Probably the most controversial part of the issue was a regime-friendly op-ed piece titled "Nećemo da podstičemo nasilje" (We don't want to encourage violence) signed by Peter Kelbel who wrote it claiming to represent the paper's owners. In the piece he criticizes the protesters and indirectly supports the regime, saying among other things that "Yugoslavia needs people who create and not wolves who follow the wolf-leader and hunt in packs" - a veiled reference to opposition leader Vuk Drašković
whose first name Vuk means "wolf". Clearly, since certain influential individuals within the state apparatus were unhappy with the paper's reporting, Blic made guarantees to decrease reporting on the protests and to decrease circulation for the time being. Blic publishers caved in under state pressure and drastically reduced the number of political pages.
Blic owners faced a lot of criticism due to their decision to give in to the regime. The move was criticized by many of its journalists and editors along with the Serbian opposition. As a response, in December 1996, the journalists and editors formed their own newspaper Demokratija that had the support of opposition Democratic Party
(DS). Still, Vukotić and many of the staffers that originally distanced themselves from the paper returned to Blic shortly and for a few months put out a stripped-down version of the paper with only 60,000 copies printed each day.
All in all, as a result of the ugly episode, Blic quickly lost half its circulation, as well as many of its journalistic staff who resigned in protest.
Blic then contracted a new printing house, resumed a critical line and soon increased its circulation to nearly 160,000.
(the first five issues were called Novi Blic). Rodić thus entered the world of newspaper publishing.
in early 2004 (takeover finalized in October 2004) for twice the amount of their original investment.
vice-governor (who was taken in red-handed at his apartment while accepting a €
100,000 bribe from Vladimir Zagrađanin of SPS
), actually had a completely different background from what the police and Serbian government authorities told the public. The newspaper alleged that Dušan Lalić, a NBS
employee and deputy PM Miroljub Labus
' son-in-law, was actually the one behind the bribing. The story further alleged that deputy PM Labus
spent an entire night convincing Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica
not to prosecute his son-in-law.
And finally, the story also accused Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jočić
of stopping the police investigation from climbing up the chain of command and thus preventing the arrests of NBS governor Radovan Jelašić
and the above mentioned Dušan Lalić, as well as SPS
' Ivica Dačić
who was present in the mentioned apartment minutes before the police stormed in. The paper voiced its fear that the minority coalition government, which held a shaky 5-seat parliamentary support at the time, would fall as Jočić's motivation for disrupting the thorough police action.
All of the parties concerned (Labus, Lalić, Jočić, Jelašić, and Dačić) vehemently rubbished the story, with Labus announcing immediate legal action against Blic for libel.
and former close friend of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović (Knežević was the best man at Đukanović's wedding). The Blic interview came couple of days after Knežević gave a similarly explosive interview to Montenegrin daily Vijesti
in which he effectively accused Đukanović and his associate Stanko Subotić of ordering the October 2008 murder of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanić
. Knežević also provided many alleged details of the decades-long cigarette smuggling operation, Đukanović had been involved in.
Conducted by journalist Nenad Jaćimović, the focus of the Blic interview was on cigarette smuggling operations through Serbia during the 1990s and its political fallout that continues to this day. In the interview, Knežević accused Đukanović, Subotić and their "cigarette smuggling cartel" of defrauding the Serbian budget of €300 million in unpaid taxes with the help of Jovica Stanišić
, Serbian former state security chief and Milošević's second in command. Knežević further alleged that since the regime change in Serbia, Đukanović and Subotić nedded a "friendly" government in Belgrade and to that end tried their best for years to reach a deal with Serbian president Boris Tadić
and his circle. After allegedly getting nowhere with Tadić, according to Knežević, they then turned their attention to other players on the Serbian political scene such as Tomislav Nikolić
and Aleksandar Vučić
who met with Đukanović and Subotić during October 2007 in Paris' Ritz Hotel
. Furthemore, according to Knežević, for this Đukanović and Subotić had the support of former DGSE intelligence operative Arnaud Danjean
. Knežević also claimed that the cigarette cartel also poses a security threat to Boris Tadić and that even Croatian president Stipe Mesić gave Tadić documents during their meeting in Sofia
on April 25, 2009 warning him of possible attacks on him.
Through a lawyer, Subotić announced that he'll sue Blic for libel. After Subotić wrote a press release that was distributed in Balkan print media outlets on August 11, 2009 in which he denies Knežević's charges and further questions Knežević's and Blic editor-in-chief Veselin Simonović's professional and moral credibility, Knežević wrote a lengthy response saying that he stands by every word from his Vijesti, Blic and NIN
interviews. In the same response, Knežević also provided further details of the murders of Radovan "Badža" Stojičić, Jusuf "Jusa" Bulić, Vanja Bokan, Goran Žugić
, Darko "Beli" Raspopović, and Blagota "Baja" Sekulić (all of which he claimed are connected to cigarette smuggling with the murders of Stojičić, Bulić, and Bokan directly ordered and approved by Stanišić, Subotić, and Đukanović) by directly naming the individuals that carried them out as well as those that ordered them.
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
owned by Ringier AG group from Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Started in 1996, it has gone through a slight format change during the mid 2000s to include more in-depth coverage, but it is still, as its name aptly suggest, a paper devoted to quick, concise, attention-grabbing news form. Blic has at times had circulations of 250,000, but now it is closer to 220,000.http://www.ringier.ch/index.cfm?rub=184
Ownership
RingierRingier
Ringier AG is one of the largest media corporations in Switzerland founded in Zofingen and based in Zürich. It publishes several newspapers and magazines in both German and French...
controls Blic through its local subsidiary, Ringier d.o.o. (formerly named Blic Press d.o.o.) a limited liability company
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
. The company's current CEO is Jelena Drakulić.
Vienna Capital Partners
Vienna Capital Partners
Vienna Capital Partners is a corporate finance advisor and private equity investor headquartered in Vienna.The company is mainly focused on corporate finance, direct investment and trust management in Central and Eastern Europe countries.- History :...
(VCP) previously had a stake in the company.
Assets
Blic has since its founding expanded to publish several newspapers. These are Blic-Europa (discontinued May 31, 2006), Blic Žena, Blic Puls, Euro Blic (the issue for Republika SrpskaRepublika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
) and variously themed supplements to Blic newspapers.
History
The newspaper was founded in 1996 by a group of AustriaAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
-based businessmen that included Peter Kelbel and Aleksandar Lupšić, who simultaneously bought Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
's Nový čas
Nový cas
Nový čas is a tabloid and the best-selling daily in Slovakia.Its content is gutter press. Its print run is 190,000 copies . The widely read supplement "Nový čas víkend" is added on Saturdays...
. At the time of his investment in Blic, Lupšić had strong ties to Milošević's wife Mira Marković and her party Yugoslav Left
Yugoslav Left
Yugoslav Left was a left-wing political party in Serbia and Montenegro. It was formed in 1994 as is a coalition of 23 left-wing and communist parties, led by the League of Communists - Movement for Yugoslavia . It has been led by Mirjana Marković, the wife of Slobodan Milošević...
(JUL). The first issue of Blic appeared on September 16, 1996 thus becoming the 10th daily newspaper to be published in FR Yugoslavia at the time (the other nine being Politika
Politika
Politika is a Serbian newspaper. It is considered the newspaper of record and is the oldest daily in the Balkans, having been founded on January 25, 1904 by Vladislav Ribnikar. It is currently being published by Politika Newspapers and Magazines , a joint venture between Politika AD and...
, Borba
Borba (newspaper)
Borba is a Serbian newspaper, formerly the official newspaper of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia...
, Dnevnik
Dnevnik (Novi Sad)
Dnevnik , lit. Daily news, is a Serbian language daily newspaper, published in Novi Sad, Serbia.The newspaper was founded during Axis occupation in 1942, and its original name was Slobodna Vojvodina...
, Pobjeda
Pobjeda
Pobjeda is a Montenegrin newspaper. Having been published for 66 years, it is the oldest Montenegrin newspaper still in circulation. It is the oldest Montenegrin active media, too....
, Narodne novine
Narodne novine
Narodne novine is the official gazette of the Republic of Croatia which publishes laws, regulations, appointments and official decisions and releases them in the public domain...
, Večernje novosti
Vecernje novosti
Večernje novosti is a Belgrade-based daily newspaper. Founded in 1953, it quickly grew into a high-circulation daily.It first appeared on stands on October 16, 1953 edited by Slobodan Glumac who set the newspaper's tone for years to come...
, Politika ekspres
Politika ekspres
Politika ekspres was a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade by Politika AD from 1963 until 2005.Known colloquially as Ekspres and started in 1963 as an evening paper meant to compete with Večernje novosti, it arrived on the market as the fourth Belgrade daily...
, Naša borba, and Dnevni telegraf
Dnevni telegraf
Dnevni telegraf was a Serbian daily tabloid newspaper published in Belgrade between 1996 and November 1998, and then also for a short time in Podgorica until March 1999. It was the first privately owned daily in Serbia after more than 50 years of across-the-board public ownership under communism...
).
Prior to that, the same group took over a Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
newspaper where they gained valuable publishing experience which encouraged them to go on further. For their Serbian operation, the owners got seasoned journalist Manojlo "Manjo" Vukotić to be the editor-in-chief.
Just like many other media operations in Serbia from the 1990s and beyond, Blics ownership structure was murky as well. It was controlled by an entity called Blic Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company registered in Belgrade in March 1996. Blic Press' owners according to the Serbian Business Register were listed to be Milorad Perovic, a resident of Belgrade (51%) and Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
-based company named Mitsui Securities Eastern Europe Fund AG (49%) whose owners were not listed.
Starting out, Blic was a typical stripped-down tabloid with short and simple stories, as well as a lot of entertainment content. Its first issues were circulated in 50,000 copies per day with the price set at 1 dinar. It also ran a havily advertised sweepstakes with the grand prize being a Volkswagen Polo
Volkswagen Polo
The Volkswagen Polo is a supermini car manufactured by Volkswagen. It is sold in Europe and other markets worldwide in hatchback, saloon, coupé and estate variants....
Classic car and DM30,000. As a result of the sweepstakes, the paper's circulation increased by 30% within only a couple of weeks of the first issue.
1996–1997 protests in Serbia
In November 1996 local municipal elections were held in cities and towns all over Serbia. Serbian opposition headed by DSDemocratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
and SPO
Serbian Renewal Movement
The Serbian Renewal Movement is a political party in Serbia.It was founded in 1990.In 1997 a dissident group abandoned the party and formed New Serbia....
parties made big gains at the expense of Milošević's SPS
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
party, which got beaten in many municipalities. Milošević refused to recognize the results, thus sparking a huge outpouring of street protests. Blic capitalized on this to further its position on the market through fair coverage of the events ignored by the Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
regime-controlled media. The decision turned out to be the winner in the short term – circulation rapidly grew to 200,000 copies a day - but it also drew the ire of the regime.
In the circumstances when state media made virtually no mention of the protests and the reporting of the independent media was insufficient on the subject, Blic made a gutsy decision to devote a sizable part of its paper every day to the protests. Expectedly, the Milošević regime lashed back immediately – it restricted Blics access to print and distribution facilities as the state printing house refused to print any more than 80,000 copies of the paper. The problem first appeared when it came time to print the November 29th, 1996 holiday 4-day issue (FR Yugoslavia at the time still celebrated the old SFR Yugoslavia's day of the republic) as state owned Borba printing facility informed the Blic staff that it's not able to print the holiday issue in the requested 235,000 copies "due to technical reasons" and instead offered to print about a third of that. The holiday issue still appeared on newsstands in projected circulation as some of it got printed at Borba and the rest in privately owned ABC Produkt. However, the issue that appeared was a complete whitewash, abandoning the paper's new concept and going back to entertainment and frivolity. Forty three journalists employed at Blic immediately publicly distanced themselves from the issue, and editor-in-chief Manjo Vukotić and his deputy Cvijetin Milivojević resigned in protest. Probably the most controversial part of the issue was a regime-friendly op-ed piece titled "Nećemo da podstičemo nasilje" (We don't want to encourage violence) signed by Peter Kelbel who wrote it claiming to represent the paper's owners. In the piece he criticizes the protesters and indirectly supports the regime, saying among other things that "Yugoslavia needs people who create and not wolves who follow the wolf-leader and hunt in packs" - a veiled reference to opposition leader Vuk Drašković
Vuk Draškovic
Vuk Drašković , leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, is a Serbian politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia.He graduated from the University of Belgrade's Law School in 1968...
whose first name Vuk means "wolf". Clearly, since certain influential individuals within the state apparatus were unhappy with the paper's reporting, Blic made guarantees to decrease reporting on the protests and to decrease circulation for the time being. Blic publishers caved in under state pressure and drastically reduced the number of political pages.
Blic owners faced a lot of criticism due to their decision to give in to the regime. The move was criticized by many of its journalists and editors along with the Serbian opposition. As a response, in December 1996, the journalists and editors formed their own newspaper Demokratija that had the support of opposition Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
(DS). Still, Vukotić and many of the staffers that originally distanced themselves from the paper returned to Blic shortly and for a few months put out a stripped-down version of the paper with only 60,000 copies printed each day.
All in all, as a result of the ugly episode, Blic quickly lost half its circulation, as well as many of its journalistic staff who resigned in protest.
Blic then contracted a new printing house, resumed a critical line and soon increased its circulation to nearly 160,000.
Glas javnosti
In April 1998, Blic experienced another fragmentation of its staff when due to disagreements with owner Aca Lupšić over revenue sharing, editor-in-chief Manjo Vukotić decided to step out on his own. Majority of the staff followed him. They then hooked up with another businessman Radisav Rodić (owner of the printing company ABC Produkt that printed daily issues of Blic and its offshoots) and under his financial backing started a new paper called Glas javnostiGlas javnosti
Glas javnosti is a daily newspaper published in Belgrade.Its first issue appeared on April 20, 1998, published by a group of journalists from Blic daily who, led by Manojlo Vukotić, left to form their own newspaper.Initially, their new paper carried the Novi Blic name, but the Belgrade Commercial...
(the first five issues were called Novi Blic). Rodić thus entered the world of newspaper publishing.
Ringier buyout
After making a profit and consolidating the operation, Lupšić's group sold Blic to Swiss multimedia communications group RingierRingier
Ringier AG is one of the largest media corporations in Switzerland founded in Zofingen and based in Zürich. It publishes several newspapers and magazines in both German and French...
in early 2004 (takeover finalized in October 2004) for twice the amount of their original investment.
Dejan Simić affair
In early 2006, Blic created a storm of controversy by claiming in its February 4, 2006 issue that January 11 arrest of Dejan Simić, National Bank of SerbiaNational Bank of Serbia
National Bank of Serbia is the central bank of Serbia; its main responsibilities are the protection of price stability and maintenance of financial stability....
vice-governor (who was taken in red-handed at his apartment while accepting a €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
100,000 bribe from Vladimir Zagrađanin of SPS
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
), actually had a completely different background from what the police and Serbian government authorities told the public. The newspaper alleged that Dušan Lalić, a NBS
National Bank of Serbia
National Bank of Serbia is the central bank of Serbia; its main responsibilities are the protection of price stability and maintenance of financial stability....
employee and deputy PM Miroljub Labus
Miroljub Labus
Miroljub Labus is a Serbian economist and politician. Currently he's a University of Belgrade professor, lecturing political economy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law...
' son-in-law, was actually the one behind the bribing. The story further alleged that deputy PM Labus
Miroljub Labus
Miroljub Labus is a Serbian economist and politician. Currently he's a University of Belgrade professor, lecturing political economy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law...
spent an entire night convincing Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica
Vojislav Koštunica
Vojislav Koštunica is a Serbian politician, statesman and the president of the Democratic Party of Serbia. He was the last President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, succeeding Slobodan Milošević and serving from 2000 to 2003...
not to prosecute his son-in-law.
And finally, the story also accused Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jočić
Dragan Jocic
Dragan Jočić is the former Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica. He was born in Belgrade in 1960....
of stopping the police investigation from climbing up the chain of command and thus preventing the arrests of NBS governor Radovan Jelašić
Radovan Jelašic
Radovan Jelašić is a Serbian economist. He is the former Governor of the Serbian National Bank....
and the above mentioned Dušan Lalić, as well as SPS
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
' Ivica Dačić
Ivica Dacic
Ivica Dačić is a Serbian politician. He is the leader of Socialist Party of Serbia and is First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Internal Affairs....
who was present in the mentioned apartment minutes before the police stormed in. The paper voiced its fear that the minority coalition government, which held a shaky 5-seat parliamentary support at the time, would fall as Jočić's motivation for disrupting the thorough police action.
All of the parties concerned (Labus, Lalić, Jočić, Jelašić, and Dačić) vehemently rubbished the story, with Labus announcing immediate legal action against Blic for libel.
Ratko Knežević interview
On July 27, 2009, Blic published an interview with Ratko Knežević, former Montenegrin trade representative in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and former close friend of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović (Knežević was the best man at Đukanović's wedding). The Blic interview came couple of days after Knežević gave a similarly explosive interview to Montenegrin daily Vijesti
Vijesti
Vijesti is a Montenegrin daily newspaper.The paper is published and managed by an entity called Daily Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company based in Podgorica...
in which he effectively accused Đukanović and his associate Stanko Subotić of ordering the October 2008 murder of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanić
Ivo Pukanic
Ivo Pukanić was a Croatian journalist and the editor of the popular Croatian political weekly Nacional.-Life and career:Pukanić was born in Zagreb...
. Knežević also provided many alleged details of the decades-long cigarette smuggling operation, Đukanović had been involved in.
Conducted by journalist Nenad Jaćimović, the focus of the Blic interview was on cigarette smuggling operations through Serbia during the 1990s and its political fallout that continues to this day. In the interview, Knežević accused Đukanović, Subotić and their "cigarette smuggling cartel" of defrauding the Serbian budget of €300 million in unpaid taxes with the help of Jovica Stanišić
Jovica Stanišic
Jovica Stanišić is a former head of the State Security Service now BIA within the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. He is facing trial at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina...
, Serbian former state security chief and Milošević's second in command. Knežević further alleged that since the regime change in Serbia, Đukanović and Subotić nedded a "friendly" government in Belgrade and to that end tried their best for years to reach a deal with Serbian president Boris Tadić
Boris Tadic
Boris Tadić is the President of Serbia and leader of the Democratic Party. He was elected to a five-year term on 27 June 2004, and was sworn into office on 11 July. He was re-elected for a de facto second five-year term on 3 February 2008 and was sworn in on 15 February...
and his circle. After allegedly getting nowhere with Tadić, according to Knežević, they then turned their attention to other players on the Serbian political scene such as Tomislav Nikolić
Tomislav Nikolic
Tomislav "Toma" Nikolić is a Serbian politician, President of the Serbian Progressive Party. He is also a former member of the Serbian Radical Party, where he served as Deputy Leader of the party and parliamentary leader during the absence of Vojislav Šešelj...
and Aleksandar Vučić
Aleksandar Vucic
Aleksandar Vučić is a Serbian politician, Deputy President of the Serbian Progressive Party. He is a former secretary-general of the Serbian Radical Party and was President of the Serbian Radical Party's city parliamentary club before joining the Serbian Progressive Party. Besides Serbian,...
who met with Đukanović and Subotić during October 2007 in Paris' Ritz Hotel
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
. Furthemore, according to Knežević, for this Đukanović and Subotić had the support of former DGSE intelligence operative Arnaud Danjean
Arnaud Danjean
' is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament elected in the 2009 European election for the East constituency. He's a former intelligence operative....
. Knežević also claimed that the cigarette cartel also poses a security threat to Boris Tadić and that even Croatian president Stipe Mesić gave Tadić documents during their meeting in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
on April 25, 2009 warning him of possible attacks on him.
Through a lawyer, Subotić announced that he'll sue Blic for libel. After Subotić wrote a press release that was distributed in Balkan print media outlets on August 11, 2009 in which he denies Knežević's charges and further questions Knežević's and Blic editor-in-chief Veselin Simonović's professional and moral credibility, Knežević wrote a lengthy response saying that he stands by every word from his Vijesti, Blic and NIN
NIN (magazine)
NIN is a weekly newsmagazine published in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name is an acronym for Nedeljne informativne novine which roughly translates into Weekly Informational Newspaper....
interviews. In the same response, Knežević also provided further details of the murders of Radovan "Badža" Stojičić, Jusuf "Jusa" Bulić, Vanja Bokan, Goran Žugić
Goran Žugić
Goran Žugić was a Montenegrin policeman and state security operative...
, Darko "Beli" Raspopović, and Blagota "Baja" Sekulić (all of which he claimed are connected to cigarette smuggling with the murders of Stojičić, Bulić, and Bokan directly ordered and approved by Stanišić, Subotić, and Đukanović) by directly naming the individuals that carried them out as well as those that ordered them.