{"id":40708,"date":"2025-04-01T15:57:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T13:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=40708"},"modified":"2025-04-02T13:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T11:56:10","slug":"olivera-zekic-failed-to-report-properties-including-an-apartment-and-garage-she-bought-from-jovana-joksimovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/olivera-zekic-failed-to-report-properties-including-an-apartment-and-garage-she-bought-from-jovana-joksimovic\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivera Zeki\u0107 Failed to Report Properties \u2013 Including an Apartment and Garage She Bought from Jovana Joksimovi\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, May 28, 2021, the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) held an emergency telephone session. Among other things, this body decides which TV channel will be assigned a broadcasting frequency, monitors and controls programs, and imposes penalties on broadcasters for rule violations. Among other things, this particular session included the question of whether to grant a license to the new Tanjug TV<\/em>.<\/p>

At the time, the TV channel was owned by companies linked to Serbian pop singer \u017deljko Joksimovi\u0107<\/strong>, journalist and long-time director of several TV stations in Serbia Manja Gr\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, and businessman close to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Radojica Milosavljevi\u0107<\/strong>, who had acquired several local media outlets during the privatization process in Serbia. About a year earlier, they had purchased the name, logo, and assets of the former news agency Tanjug<\/em> and founded the television station.<\/p>

Joksimovi\u0107\u2019s wife, journalist Jovana Joksimovi\u0107<\/strong>, was appointed as editor-in-chief.<\/p>

Following a vote, council members headed by Olivera Zeki\u0107 unanimously decided that Tanjug would be granted a cable broadcasting license.<\/p>

However, Zeki\u0107 hid a potential conflict of interest from the public and from the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em>.<\/p>

An investigation carried out by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em> (CINS) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network<\/em> (BIRN) has uncovered that the then-president of the REM Council purchased an apartment and garage near Vukov Spomenik from Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 in the same month when Tanjug<\/em> was granted its license.<\/p>

According to data from the Real Estate Price Registry of the Republic Geodetic Authority<\/em>, the apartment was bought for at least 160,000 EUR, with Zeki\u0107 taking out a loan of 120,000 EUR for the purchase, according to cadastral data.<\/p>

Zeki\u0107 first told CINS that she did not remember whether she had bought the apartment and garage from Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 but afterwards stated that she had taken out a loan for the purchase. She also asked us what was wrong with that.<\/p>

\u201cLady, are you some kind of financial investigator?\u201d Zeki\u0107 responded when asked about the value of the apartment. She then refused to continue the conversation and ended the call.<\/p>

Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 did not respond to calls from CINS\u2019s reporter.<\/p>

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According to her asset and income report, which Zeki\u0107 is required to submit to the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> as a public official, her income from the budget is listed as 80,000 RSD. However, she did not report any other property.*<\/p>

For instance, the apartment and garage she purchased from Jovana Joksimovi\u0107, as well as a part of an apartment in her hometown of Kraljevo, are not listed in the report from April 2021.<\/p>

Vladimir Tupanjac<\/strong>, a lawyer who used to work at the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em>, says that Zeki\u0107 was obligated to report this, as well as other assets.<\/p>

“Failure to report could lead the Agency to launch misdemeanor or criminal charges against her. If the Agency determines there was an intention to conceal asset and income data, that would be a criminal offense; if not, it would be a misdemeanor.”<\/p>

CINS began investigating the claims in Zeki\u0107’s asset and income report in December. The report only listed her income of 80,000 RSD, even though REM\u2019s financial plan for 2021 shows that, as President of the Council, she was entitled to a net salary of around 192,000 RSD. Additionally, Zeki\u0107 previously told Cenzolovka<\/a> that she had been employed at REM since 2016 \u2013 in a public relations capacity.<\/p>

At the time, the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> confirmed that, apart from the reports available on the website, she had not submitted any other reports, and the Agency had not conducted any routine or extraordinary audits of these reports.<\/p>

In response to direct questions about whether Zeki\u0107 had reported the apartment and garage in Belgrade, part of the apartment in Kraljevo, and her savings to the Agency, they now say that the reports available on their website were everything that the former president of REM\u2019s Council had submitted.<\/p>

\u201cGiven the nature of your questions, the Agency will conduct a retroactive review to establish whether there are conditions for initiating proceedings and identifying any potential violations of the Law on Prevention of Corruption.\u201d<\/p>

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Potential conflict of interest<\/strong><\/h2>

According to the Law on Prevention of Corruption, a conflict of interest is a situation where a public official has a private interest which affects, may affect, or appears to affect the discharge of public office.<\/p>

The official must notify the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> of any suspicion or existence of a conflict of interest.<\/p>

As Olivera Zeki\u0107 bought the apartment from Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 before deciding on Tanjug\u2019s<\/em> broadcasting license, CINS asked the Agency<\/em> whether Zeki\u0107 had reported this potential conflict of interest and, if so, when and why.<\/p>

The Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> says that during her tenure as a public official, Zeki\u0107 “did not inform the Agency about any suspicion of a conflict of interest or an actual conflict of interest.”<\/p>

Nemanja Nenadi\u0107 <\/strong>from Transparency Serbia<\/em> says that Zeki\u0107 should have informed the Agency<\/em> prior to making the decision on the Tanjug license.<\/p>

“After learning that a company co-owned by Joksimovi\u0107 was applying for a license, Zeki\u0107 should have sought the Agency\u2019s opinion on whether there were any obstacles for her to participate in that decision-making process.”<\/p>

He also explains that, according to REM\u2019s Statute at the time, Zeki\u0107 was obligated to inform Council members of any circumstances that could lead to a conflict of interest.<\/p>

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Zoran Gavrilovi\u0107<\/strong> from the Bureau for Social Research<\/em> (BIRODI) agrees that Zeki\u0107 should have approached the Agency and informed her colleagues on the Council about a potential conflict of interest.<\/p>

\u201cShe should have informed REM Council members and asked for their opinion. Also, she should have recused herself from voting. A person who values their integrity as an official and institution representative would do this.\u201d<\/p>

Radar<\/a> reported last year that Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 and her husband \u017deljko attended Olivera Zeki\u0107\u2019s birthday party a few years ago, which she herself confirmed in a response after the article was published<\/a>.<\/p>

According to Istinomer<\/em><\/a>, Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 has been active in the media since 2001 when she began her career at BK Television. In the following years, she hosted morning program shows on Radio Television of Serbia<\/em>, Pink<\/em>, and Prva<\/em>. Towards the end of 2020, she announced her move to TV K1, which is majority-owned by her husband \u017deljko Joksimovi\u0107. By 2021, she became the editor-in-chief of Tanjug TV<\/em>.<\/p>

On the other hand, \u017deljko Joksimovi\u0107 entered the media industry in 2019, when his company, Minacord Media<\/em>, established three television channels \u2013 K1, Kazbuka<\/em>, and TV Doktor<\/em>. REM also granted all these stations broadcasting licenses at one of their meetings.<\/p>

At a celebration marking the second anniversary of K1 TV<\/a> in 2022, guests included Tamara Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, the wife of President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, and Suzana Vasiljevi\u0107<\/strong>, the President\u2019s advisor.<\/p>

Additionally, during one of \u017deljko Joksimovi\u0107\u2019s performances last summer, Jovana Joksimovi\u0107 was seen with Tamara Vu\u010di\u0107, as shown in photos shared on Instagram stories, as reported by Blic<\/a>.<\/p>

*Note: This text was amended on April 2nd to immediately correct an internally identified unintentional mistake. The previous version of the text incorrectly stated that Olivera Zeki\u0107 had not reported her savings to the Anti-Corruption Agency, while her asset declaration shows that she had.<\/i><\/p>

The sentence from the previous text, “However, she did not report any other property or savings.” has been corrected to “However, she did not report any other properties.”<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CINS and BIRN can reveal that the former President of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Olivera Zeki\u0107 bought an apartment and garage from Tanjug editor-in-chief Jovana Joksimovi\u0107. She failed to report this, other properties, as well as a potential conflict of interest to the Anti-Corruption Agency before making a decision regarding the issuance of a broadcasting license to this TV channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1378,"featured_media":40739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1492,1574,1575],"tags":[1643,1644],"class_list":["post-40708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigative-stories","category-media","category-media-regulators","tag-media-regulators","tag-regulatory-body-for-electronic-media","ciTrackContent"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Olivera-Zekic-nije-prijavila-imovinu-\u2013-stan-i-garazu-kupila-od-Jovane-Joksimovic-16x9-1.jpg","author_additional":[1379],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1378"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40713,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40708\/revisions\/40713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}