12. 12. 2003

Financiers wash their hands

BELGRADE, December 12, 2003 – Bank owners Dragan Nikolic and Djordje Nicovic have denied signing any deal to finance the now defunct Belgrade daily Marka. “I promised I’d help, and that’s what I did, but I never signed any agreement undertaking an obligation to finance them,” said Nicovic. “I never had any ambitions to become the owner or financier of this daily.” Nicovic said he was no longer in a position to invest in the paper. “I wasn’t satisfied with the look of the paper. A daily printed on just eight pages does not look serious. And they were bragging, saying their had salaries of 1,300 euros. When they launched the paper they said they would print 30,000 copies, but in all this time they have yet to reach 20,000. They never managed to meet our expectations,” he said.