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A “person of interest” has been detained in Poland in the ongoing investigation into the murder of Dutch investigative reporter Peter R. de Vries. The male 30 year old Polish person, not otherwise identified, was arrested on request of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, which announced the arrest (September 26). Mr. de Vries was shot in Amsterdam near the RTL Boulevard studios in July 2021 and succumbed nine days later.
The investigation has stretched across several countries but the Polish connection seems clear. Two persons were subsequently arrested for the shooting - believed to be the hitmen - and are now on trial. One, believed to have driven the getaway car, is a Polish national. That trial has hit a snag as the judge resigned and left the Netherlands. (See more about investigative reporting here)
Another Polish man, believed to be the contractor, was arrested in July. This was something of a breakthrough for Dutch investigators as that person is a known associate of drug lord Ridouan Taghi, believed to have ordered the hit. He is currently in jail awaiting trial in the Marengo case, involving several murders and attempted murders. Two other men were arrested this past July in Spain and Curacao. They are believed to have made video recordings of the murder of Mr. de Vries meant to intimidate potential witnesses, reported Dutch public broadcaster NRC (September 27), at least three of whom were murdered.
Much like a disrupted deep space event, the collapse of the TF1 Group/M6 Group fusion under the weight of the French Competition Authority has created a few black holes, at least for French media watchers. Considerable attention, of course, has turned to potential, supposed or, even, implausible buyers for M6 Group now that parent RTL Group chief executive Thomas Rabe called for an instantaneous beauty contest. By contrast, TF1 Group has turned inward, shuffling executives.
Starting from the top, literally, Rodolphe Belmer will be the new TF1 chief executive, said the official press statement reported by Reuters (September 23), replacing, after a few months of adjustment, Gilles Pélisson, who remains TF1 Group chairperson. M Belmer comes with a broad, if not deep, pedigree. Once Canal+ general manager he was touted, briefly, for the top job at public broadcaster France Télévisions. That opportunity lost, Vivendi principal Vincent Ballore, owner of Canal+, cut him loose after 14 years. (See more about media in France here)
M Belmer had time with consulting giant McKinsey from which he landed a board seat with Netflix, a very important CV point in the digital era. According to media watchers at Le Parisien (September 23), he had been the choice to lead the TF1/M6 fusion. In the midst, Canal+ removed all TF1 Group channels from its distribution network.
Meanwhile, French media watchers are quite attentive to offers for M6 Group, bids due for Herr Rabe’s desk last Friday (September 23). One, touted by Les Echos (September 23), is from Banijay chairperson Stéphane Courbit along with shipping billionaire Rodolphe Saade and Fimalac chief executive Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere. Banijay is a major French video production house. That team, reported Bloomberg (September 26), is offering €20 per share, in the vicinity of €1.2 billion.
Also teaming up are telecom billionaire Xavier Niel, minority shareholder in publisher Le Monde, and Italian media mogul and legendary politician Silvio Berlusconi, through his MediaForEurope business. According to Le Figaro (September 25), Sr Berlusconi wants to bolster the limping MediaForEurope project, not to forget still seething at the Le Cinq channel failing, and M. Niel wants political support for an entreé to the Italian telecom market. Francophile Czech energy-sector billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has placed his bid. He owns Czech Media Invest that acquired Eastern European radio broadcasting outlets from Lagardère, French magazine Marianne and a significant slice of Le Monde. According to various reports, Herr Rabe could announce the winner as soon as Friday (September 30).
For reasons only known by those in charge, Nicaraguan authorities removed the CNN en español channel from the airwaves last Thursday. Nicaragua’s dictator Daniel Ortega, nominally a communist, has never been a fan of critical news reporting, international or local. CNN en español anchor Fernando del Rincón reported on-air (September 22) that the CNN home office attempted to reach out to private international cable operators for a different solution but were ignored.
"At CNN en Español we believe in the vital role that press freedom plays in a healthy democracy, “ said the channel’s statement. The Government of Nicaragua (stopped) our television signal, denying Nicaraguans news and information from our network, which they have trusted for more than 25 years.” The station’s YouTube channel remains accessible as does the radio feed. (See more about TV news here)
Condemning the black-out, Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) president Jorge Canahuati noted that the subject will certainly be on the agenda at the organization’s General Assembly three weeks from now in Madrid, Spain. “We are facing another grotesque example of censorship and persecution of independent journalism in Nicaragua. The regime continues with its isolation process, this time by attacking international media after it eliminated independent Nicaraguan journalism.” At the end of August, the regime expropriated the facilities of the country’s oldest newspaper La Prensa. (See more about press/media freedom here)
CNN en Español is a Spanish language news channel of CNN Global, subsidiary of Warner Brothers Discovery. The pay-TV channel has been on the airwaves since 1997. It is distributed extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean, Venezuela excepted.
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