One of the largest publishing houses in the Czech Republic – Mafra – will no longer be owned by the Agrofert holding, whose beneficial owner is former prime minister Andrej Babiš, a positive step for Czech media, David Klimeš, director of the Czech Foundation for Independent Journalism, told Euractiv Czechia.
The Czech antimonopoly office recently approved the sale, with its decision coming into effect on 29 January.
“The sale of the Mafra publishing house from the trust funds of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is clearly a positive thing for the Czech media,” said Klimeš.
Babiš’s Agrofert Holding, whose business mainly focuses on agriculture and food processing, bought Mafra in 2013. At that time, Babiš was already the leader of the ANO political party and was at the beginning of his political career. Later, he became finance minister and also prime minister. Due to the conflict of interest, Babiš put Agrofert into trust funds but remained the beneficial owner.
“In recent years, it was the most significant example of the accumulation of media, political and business power, which threatened the independence of the media,” Klimeš explained.
Because of this, Czechia has fallen in the international media freedom rankings published by Reporters without Borders.
Babiš retreated to the opposition after the 2021 elections and ran – unsuccessfully – for president in 2023. In the second half of last year, reports emerged that the opposition leader wanted to sell the Mafra publishing house and that it could end up in the hands of investment group Kaprain. The Antitrust Authority has now confirmed the transaction.
Agrofert said the sale allows the holding to focus more on key segments of its business in the future. However, Agrofert may have also been motivated to sell Mafra by a new Czech law called ‘Lex Babiš’ under which top politicians cannot own broadcasters and periodical publishers, even through a trust fund. The new law also applies to MPs, which Babiš currently is.
The new owner of the publishing house will be the Kaprain Group of Czech businessman Karel Pražák. However, it is unclear whether Kaprain will keep or sell it further.
“It will be important for the future of the Czech media whether Mafra remains one of the largest media houses in Czechia or is sold off,” Klimeš said.
Mafra publishes Czech daily newspapers Mladá fronta DNES and Lidové noviny both on and offline. It also published the music television channel Óčko. Agrofert also owns the publishing house Mafra Slovakia, which publishes several newspapers in Slovakia.
(Aneta Zachová | Euractiv.cz)
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Source: euractiv.com
