Tuširanka: Chip-fed chick

Izar Lunaček

Tuširanka comments on the story of Ostro.si, Direkt 36 and IRL Macedonia about Orbán’s propaganda machine.

An influential cheerleader for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has pumped over 3.2 million euros into his North Macedonian media network under the guise of questionable advertising purchases.

The money was transferred to two North Macedonian media companies belonging to Peter Schatz, a Hungarian media executive, from another company he owns in Slovenia. The television and web ads bought through these payments were aired on behalf of two small Hungarian companies, one of which sells olive oil and the other small trinkets such as refrigerator magnets. Neither company appears to have imported anything into North Macedonia, calling into question the stated purpose of the transactions.

The North Macedonian financial police are looking into the matter, according to a report obtained by OCCRP’s local member center and interviews with officials. Investigators suspect that the ad purchases represent “laundering” of Hungarian state money.

Izar Lunaček

What is Tuširanka?

Generally, we publish Tuširanka only in Slovenian language as a weekly visual commentary created by brilliant Slovenian illustrators.

Given complete media censorship of our the story about Russian investments in Croatia we decided to break our routine and translate it into English and Croatian.

Tuširanka puts the illustration on the pedestal above the word. It upgrades the traditional press commentary by using principles of newspaper caricature in order for it to find new life in the digital world.

A »tuširanka« is an ink drawing, but on Oštro.si it is a weekly visual commentary, which is holding a critical mirror up to current events. Sometimes it provokes laughter, even bitter, sometimes it acts like a cold shower. For me or you. For all of us. For society.