Political parties have come up with a system where they quite simply buy the media with public money which they funnel through middlemen to media conglomerates. This deal between journalists and politicians has unified the media. It obeys parties, which have formed an alliance of their own. There is no one left to challenge this monolithic ruling elite and fewer and fewer people are finding out about its misdeeds because information is tightly controlled.
Parties are paying tens of millions of euros to get the media to keep quiet and look the other way. The contracts under which this money is paid are kept out of public sight and hushed up with confidentiality clauses.
Recorder delved deep into this system in an investigation sparked by an anonymous email that gave us a number of documents. After over six months of digging, we figured out how the web of payments works and demanded explanations from media empires and the politicians who bankroll them. Now we can show you how parties have been buying the media with our money.
P.S. Please share this documentary with family and people you know who get most of their news from TV and have a right to know how the relationship between parties and TV channels works.
English subitles: Peter Shortall and Florin Ular