BELGRADE, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Serbia’s 72-year-old Tanjug news agency, once the mouthpiece of socialist Yugoslavia, has been shut down after two failed privatisation attempts, the government said on Wednesday.
Tanjug, short for Telegraphic Agency of the New Yugoslavia, was among 38 state-owned media outlets put up for sale under a campaign to end state ownership in the sector as Serbia seeks to advance its aspirations for European Union membership.
But the sales in August and October, at starting prices of 761,000 euros ($831,000) and 380,467 euros respectively, failed to attract any serious expressions of interest.
The government said “the law regulating operations of the Public Enterprise Tanjug” had expired on Oct. 31.
“All employees will receive severance payments … and will be paid for their work until publication of the government’s decision on legal consequences of the shutdown of the Public Enterprise (Tanjug),” a government statement said.
