AT&T has just sold the broadcaster Central European Media Enterprises to the Czech Republic’s wealthiest man, Petr Kellner.
CME also include several TV stations in Romania, the most prominent being ProTV which also happens to have the largest audience.
One of the most influential journalists argues that by this transaction the vast majority of the TV audience will under "moguls" influence (Romanian source - fragment translated below):
The decision by AT&T to sell the entire press business in Central and Eastern Europe, including Romanian PRO TV, to a Czech billionaire with a strong pro-Russian orientation is bad news for the Romanian television market.
While I cannot find a good source to confirm the connections between Petr Kellner and Russia (might be a decent question for Skeptics), US seems to lose an important media channel in the Easter Europe1.
I am wondering if making business in media does not also include a geopolitic component (i.e. owning media outlets helps influence public opinion).
Question: Does US foreign policy also try to use media outlets as "soft power" in the Eastern Europe?
To make this question narrow enough I am interested only in answers to US investments.
1 I can attest that ProTV virtually brought the modern television in Romania and also helped create a culture that favors Western values and it might be an important factor behind the fact that Romanians are both in favor of NATO and EU.