BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s DJV journalists’ association appealed on Thursday to investors in ProSiebenSat.1 not to sell their shares to Italian suitor MFE, warning it could impose a “right-wing populist agenda” on the German media company.
Owned by the family of late Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, MFE is courting ProSieben shareholders to sell over the next two weeks as it seeks to build a pan-European television company to compete with U.S. streaming giants.
“It is in the hands of the shareholders to save jobs at the private broadcaster network and prevent a shift to the right,” DJV head Mika Beuster said in a statement.
“We need more journalism, not more agitation,” he added.
MFE declined to comment on the allegations of a right-wing populist agenda.
ProSieben management gave up its resistance and advised shareholders to accept MFE’s bid after it raised the offer earlier this month, but the Italians’ move has caused some unease in Berlin.
In comments to Reuters in July, German culture minister Wolfram Weimer said ProSieben’s journalistic independence must be preserved. He planned to meet Italian media magnate Pier Silvio Berlusconi, the late politician’s son, to discuss the issue.
MFE said earlier this week it had managed to secure 43.6% of ProSieben shares by the end of the initial acceptance period for its tender offer, shy of a majority.
(Reporting by Rachel More and Klaus Lauer, editing by Ludwig Burger)
