Blic (newspaper)
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Tabloid |
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| Owner | Ringier AG |
| Editor | Veselin Simonović |
| Founded | September 16, 1996 |
| Political allegiance | - |
| Headquarters | 27. marta 1/IX, 11000 Beograd, Serbia |
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| Website: www.blic.co.yu | |
Blic is one of the highest circulation dailies in Serbia. It is a tabloid owned by Ringier AG group from Switzerland. In recent years, it has gone through a slight format change to include more in-depth coverage but it's 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 120,000.[1]
The newspaper was founded in 1996 by a group of Austria-based businessmen led by Aleksandar Lupsic, who simultaneously bought Bratislava's Nový čas. The first issue appeared on September 16, 1996.
Prior to that, the same group took over a Prague newspaper where they gained valuable publishing experience which encouraged them to go on further. After making a profit and consolidating the operation, they sold Blic to a Swiss multimedia communications group Ringier AG in early 2004 for twice the amount of their original investment.page 22
Blic has at times been criticized for its actions. A prime example is how during protest in late 1996 and early 1997 in Serbia when state media made no reporting and the reporting of the independent media was insufficient on the subject, Blic started reporting on the protests. Since this decision offended certain influential individuals within the state apparatus, Blic made guarantees to decrease reporting on the subject and to decrease circulation for the time being. This move was criticized by many of its journalists and editors along with the Serbian opposition, in response the journalists and editors formed their own newspaper "Glas Javnosti" (the first five issues where called Novi Blic). Glas Javnosti exists to this day and is closely associated with the Democratic Party of Serbia.
Blic has since its founding expanded to publish several newspapers. These are Blic-Europa (till 31.05.2006), Blic Zena, Blic Puls, Euro Blic (the issue for Republika Srpska) and supplements to Blic newspapers.
[edit] 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 Serbia 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.[2]
All of the parties concerned (Labus, Lalić, Jočić, Jelašić, and Dačić) vehemently rubbished the story, with Labus announcing immediate legal action against Blic for slander.
