Talk:Dragan Šolak (businessman)

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Update the United Group section

Hello, my name is Alex. I am employed by United Group and Dragan Šolak. Due to my conflict of interest, I am going to post some content suggestions I think will improve the page for others to consider and implement instead of making the edits directly.

This update I am suggesting is for the United Group section, which currently has two sentences. The first sentence does not need editing but I think the second sentence could be replaced with the following information: "Solak served as chief executive for United Group for eight years. He became chairman in 2008, and he remains an advisor to the board as of 2022. He retains a 33% share in United Group."

References

This helps make it a little bit more robust and informative. Thank you AlexforUnited (talk) 11:27, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

 Done ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 13:01, 23 April 2024 (UTC)

@ARandomName123: Thank you for this update. If you have time and interest, I posted several other requests below for editors to consider. AlexforUnited (talk) 06:40, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Request to remove Money laundering investigations section

Hello, I am Alex from United Group with another request.

In this request I am suggesting removing the entire Money laundering investigations section. The name of the section is misleading, as it could imply Šolak was involved in money laundering investigations, which he was not. This section is not about Dragan Šolak directly but rather a media company owned by him and its reporting into Slovenian government misconduct. Per Wikipedia's rules, this article should focus on Šolak, not the misconduct investigation. Perhaps information on N1's investigation belongs elsewhere on Wikipedia. I just don't think it belongs here.

Additionally, while the last paragraph mentions Šolak's bank account, the sentence is poorly written and I do not believe it is an accurate summation of the sourced article. Even if well written, it does not belong here.

For those reasons, I think removal is appropriate here.

Thank you. AlexforUnited (talk) 09:18, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

Comment. I do not want to answer or opine on this edit request, but will give some reliable sources in Slovene: Slovenian national TV [1] (naming Šolak prominently) and Delo, the Ljubljana-based paper of record [2] (naming Šolak glancingly). Both cover mainly as potential political prosecution. Google Translate generally does a reasonable job Slovene-to-English. Russ Woodroofe (talk) 12:29, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: The proposed changes are removing content that is well-cited or where sources exist. Lightoil (talk) 03:37, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

@Lightoil: Thank you for the review of these requests! Yes I agree that content itself is well sourced. I do not dispute that. Despite this, I think the problem is that it does not belong on this page, as this is an issue about N1. Perhaps consider moving it to the N1 (TV channel) article? This section is about Dragan Šolak only tangentially, since it is about his media company (that has its own page) and its reporting into Slovenian government misconduct (which also has its own page). Because of that, this information does not seem appropriate for this biography. AlexforUnited (talk) 13:20, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

 Note: Reopening as on second thought, I am unsure whether the section should be removed. Lightoil (talk) 16:15, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

@Lightoil: Thanks for reopening this. Curious if you have any additional thoughts on it, or have an idea for how to get some more voices? AlexforUnited (talk) 07:35, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

My thinking is that it may not be relevant but Wikipedia does not remove negative sourced info on people. Lightoil (talk) 03:56, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

@Lightoil: I understand your concern. I do not think this is a case of removing negative content, the "negative" content itself isn't even about Šolak; none of this reported misconduct was done by Šolak, or anything under his control. He was one of many targeted by the government in irregular investigations conducted by the Slovenian Office for Money Laundering Prevention, which was uncovered in a report by N1. To put it simply, the misconduct is not about Šolak, so the content belongs elsewhere on Wikipedia, such as the article about N1 (TV channel), which initially broke the story. It seems strange to me to have the information on the article about the person targeted by such misconduct. A mixture of WP:UNDUE, WP:OFFTOPIC, and WP:RELEVANCE suggest to me that this doesn't belong on this Wikipedia article. There's also WP:VNOT, which says, "While information must be verifiable for inclusion in an article, not all verifiable information must be included. Consensus may determine that certain information does not improve an article. Such information should be omitted or presented instead in a different article." AlexforUnited (talk) 06:50, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

The material under discussion here was recently removed from the article by an apparent WP:SPA using the same line of argument given above by a COI user. I have reverted the edit which removed the material because COI edit requests should not be implemented when no consensus exists. Axad12 (talk) 07:07, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

Note: Same SPA has edited the title of the section. Rusalkii (talk) 04:41, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I am not sure what would be best here. Any thoughts? Axad12 (talk) 04:44, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Well, the new section title is just ungrammatical and confusing, so there's that. That being said I agree with the previous that the bare "Money laundering" is somewhat misleading, I am attempting to understand what exactly was going on here. Rusalkii (talk) 04:45, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Okay, looking at this more carefully. This section is somewhat poorly written, so summarizing Solak's involvement to make sure I'm not misunderstanding anything: N1info, owned by Solak, reports on a money laundering investigation, claiming that it was politically motivated in advance of an election. One of the bank accounts investigated was allegedly Solak.

I think that the above, if an accurate summary of the situation, seems like about the reasonable amount of weight to put on this fact in an article about Solak (his does seem to be mentioned not-infrequently in the reporting on the subject). However, Two sentences does not exaclty a section make, so I'm not entirely sure where to put it. @AlexforUnited, do you have thoughts on location and/or proposed phrasing? Rusalkii (talk) 04:49, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Such allegations and counter-allegations are sadly two a penny in many countries, and determining who was right or wrong is not for Wikipedia to decide. Fortunately Wikipedia only seeks to record what independent sources have reported on the matter, which ought to be a rather more straightforward matter.

In that regard it's worth noting that 2 of the current sources for these events (refs 16 and 17) derive from N1, which (if I understand correctly) is owned by Solak and thus is not an independent source.

User AlexforUnited has attempted to raise the subject on the Project Slovenia noticeboard, sadly with no response. It would have been very useful here to have had input from non-conflicted Slovenian speakers, both in terms of working out what would constitute appropriately balanced coverage and in terms of locating WP:RS sources in independent media.

Clearly it is very much to AlexforUnited's credit that he has attempted to get outside input here.

In terms of how we cover the issue in the article. I would prefer it if it was described along the approximate lines of "There was an investigation into money laundering in relation to a company owned by Solak. N1 media, also owned by Solak, later claimed that the investigation was politically motivated in the run up to an election". And then some brief material on the subsequent fallout.

What I mean is that the story here isn't that there was an investigation by N1 into government malpractice, the story is that there was a money laundering investigation (which seems to have been rather ill-feted, if the current article reflects matters correctly).

Obviously, if other forms of media, unrelated to Solak, made similar claims then it would be possible to word the section in a way which removed the potential conflict of interest in the response by N1.

It would also be very useful to know what happened subsequent to the October 2023 arrests, if there is any update on that yet.

(There is also a broader issue here re: similar material added to the N1 article by user Anny Milo.)

To be clear, I take no sides on the matters discussed above, I'm just trying to find the most WP:NPOV way of covering the events. Axad12 (talk) 05:58, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

@Axad12 and Rusalkii: as far as sourcing goes, did you see the two that I suggested near the top of this talk page heading? Russ Woodroofe (talk) 08:09, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out Russ, much appreciated. Axad12 (talk) 09:29, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

"Early life and education" section missing

Hello, Alex from United Group here. This biography is missing a section on Šolak's early life and education, which is common on Wikipedia from what I've seen, so I prepared a draft citing The Guardian and BBC for others to review and add to the article if it meets Wikipedia's standards.

Early life and education

Šolak was born in 1964 in Kragujevac. He later moved to Belgrade for university but left to focus on business opportunities. In 1990, Šolak started a production business, one of the first in Yugoslavia. Following the 1992 Bosnian war, Šolak spent a decade abroad working in intellectual property and copyright. In 2000, he started a local cable television network in his home town that later grew with international funding. In 2014, that network became United Group.

References

Thank you. AlexforUnited (talk) 06:43, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

 Done ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 00:02, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you very much for implementing these requests. If you are interested, I have two final requests up on the talk page about the money laundering section and the sports republic section. Please let me know your thoughts! AlexforUnited (talk) 09:21, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

"Sport Republic" section addition

Hello, Alex from United Group with a final request for now. I suggest the following addition to the Sports Republic section since there have been new developments since this section was last updated. Please consider the following:

In September 2022, Šolak invested £48 million into the firm and in 2023, he contributed an additional £15 million. The money was intended for general operations and also to highlight Šolak's commitment to the club.

References

Thank you. AlexforUnited (talk) 06:44, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

 Done Lightoil (talk) 03:36, 12 June 2024 (UTC)