Ljubljana - Boris Tomašič, executive director of NovaTV24.si, has commented on reports that he has acquired a stake in the media company running the news channel Nova24TV from Hungarian owners by saying that no transaction has been finalised yet. He said the company was a target of political pressure by the ruling coalition.

"The information you have is inaccurate. No transaction has been completed yet. I do not comment on pending deals. The details of the transaction are confidential," said Tomašič as he responded for the STA over a recent report by the news portal Necenzurirano that three Hungarian owners sold their stakes in NovaTV24.si.

"The company will continue to do business as usual and problem free. Its ratings will increase further," Tomašič wrote in response to a question what the change in ownership structure meant for the company's financial stability.

According to him, the stability was being jeopardised by "political pressures on companies, police and other bodies exerted by the Freedom Movement and the rest of the coalition".

Describing such pressures as unacceptable, he said they prompted them to appeal to the viewers to help the company with financial contributions. "The response has been excellent and if it continues this way the attempt by those in power to destroy our media outlet will fail," wrote Tomašič.

After Hungarian businessman Peter Schatz sold a majority stake in Nova Obzorja, the company issuing the weekly magazine Demokracija, to NovaTV24.si in late May, Necenzurirano has reported that he has now also withdrawn from NovaTV24.si.

The report said that Schatz and fellow Hungarian businessmen Agnes Adamik and Adam Gabor Nemeth sold just over 45% of the shares in NovaTV24.si to Tomašič, a long-term member of the Democratic Party (SDS), now an opposition party. He is best known as host of the controversial show Who Lies to You?.

The management of NovaTV24.si this week called a shareholders' meeting for 8 August to vote on the proposal that EUR 737,080 in accumulated loss as of the end of 2021 remain outstanding and on whether to authorise the management to issue new shares to exchange with existing shares. The latter proposal aims to make the shares issued more transparent unified.