January 31, 2018
The Serbian Export Credit and Insurance Agency (AOFI) approved a loan of 3.2 million euros to company Pink International, broadcaster of the pro-government channel TV Pink, according to research conducted by the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS).
Journalists didn’t manage to discover why this state agency for supporting export decided to approve credit to TV Pink, as the AOFI refused to submit details of the loan and it is not possible from the Ministry of Finance’s available data to conclude the purpose of the loan, nor precisely what Pink exports.
Owner of this media company, Željko Mitrović, said that the loans were approved for him as he is a “big exporter”, although he doesn’t export goods, “rather programmes and services”.
Otherwise, this company already received in excess of €10 million from this same agency for encouraging export activities in 2014, in the name of guarantees and loans. During that year, AOFI also issued a guarantee to Pink of up to €2.5 million, which, according to the CINS report, means that the state provided guarantees for the operations of this private television company.
