Final Word from Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Blesk is the most-read Czech newspaper and also wants to be your energy supplier (Blesk energie), give you a MasterCard (Blesk peněženka) and provide you with phone service (BleskMobil). If Blesk plays such an important role in the lives of so many Czechs, shouldn't the antitrust office know who owns it? As we wrote three weeks ago, the ownership of the newspaper changed soon after the sale of Ringier Axel Springer CZ to Rongosor was approved in Feb. The new owners are two offshore companies, but the antitrust office told us it hasn't received a new request for an ownership change. This means one of three things: First, that Daniel Křetínský and Patrik Tkáč remain the owners and have merely shuffled around their assets. Second, that they have taken on a new partner (such as Martin Roman) but are violating the law by keeping it secret. Or third, that they found a legal loophole allowing them to change the owners without filing a new antitrust request. Either way, the public has no way of knowing who the real owners of Blesk are. [Czech Republic Czech News Center EPH EP Holding J&T Czech Media Invest Gruenberg Investment B.V. Netherlands and Interscope Limited U.K. CEZ]
Glossary of difficult words
to shuffle something (around) - to rearrange something;
loophole - an ambiguity or inadequacy in the law or a set of rules.