Final Word from Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Czech Media Invest, the ultimate owner of Blesk, E15, Reflex and other print publications, has put things in order since we last wrote about it in April 2016. It's no longer owned by two offshore companies, as we first noted in Oct. 2014. Its ownership structure on paper is now entirely transparent: Daniel Křetínský (50%), Patrik Tkáč (40%) and Roman Korbačka (10%). The shareholder change is a laudable move, and, to be fair, we should have noticed it sooner. Czech Media Invest apparently had its own reasons for not calling attention to the transfer of shares. Questions might have arisen about who was on the other side of the deal. We can still have our doubts about whether Martin Roman is a secret owner of the CR's largest publisher, but there is no longer any legal basis for making such a claim in public. It's now up to the editors and reporters of these publications to perform their jobs in such a way as to not raise any doubts. This also applies to the editors and reporters at Frekvence 1, Evropa 2 and other stations, as Czech Media Invest becomes the CR's largest private radio broadcaster. [Czech Republic newspapers ČEZ]