It has now been 14 days since the editors-in-chief of N1 and Nova television stations, Nova.rs news portal, daily Danas and weekly Radar formally asked the management of United Group and its majority owner, BC Partners, for the chance to carry out a management buyout of these media outlets. To this day, we have received no reply.
The offer – sent in the form of an open letter – was addressed primarily to United Group CEO Stan Miller and BC Partners representative Nikos Stathopoulos, as well as to four other senior executives at the investment fund.
We recall that, following the recent management shake-up at United Group that saw Dragan Solak and Victoriya Boklag removed, the public learned that the future of United Media outlets could end up being decided by people in Serbia’s executive branch, headed by the president of Serbia.
President Vucic himself hinted at this back in February, claiming United Group had failed to secure financing and that journalists would start being laid off in November.
November is precisely the month when final 2026 budgets are drawn up, along with five-year financial plans.
Our management buyout proposal is fair and responsible toward our staff, toward the majority owner, and toward the public, which demands an editorial policy free from pressure by either the government or investors.
This implies that the editors of these outlets would secure an investor who guarantees editorial independence, work in the public interest, and sustainable financing.
In the three weeks of silence from United Group and BC Partners, we have not seen any de-escalation of government pressure on independent media.
On the contrary: just this month alone, Information Minister Boris Bratina openly floated the possibility of banning N1 TV and Nova TV from broadcasting, while yesterday an N1 reporting crew was physically attacked and had equipment destroyed while filming near the so-called Caciland.
Not one state official has reacted to this attack. Threats against journalists across all our newsrooms, together with the criminal complaints and lawsuits filed against editors and journalists at Nova.rs and Radar, are all part of the same strategy of pressure and intimidation.
That climate is exactly why, in its recently passed resolution, the European Parliament once again specifically draws attention to the “negotiations” between Serbia’s executive branch and United Media’s owners aimed at weakening these media outlets.
Meanwhile, sources close to journalists have confirmed that United Group leadership intends to make changes at the helm of United Media, the very changes that were discussed by CEO Stan Miller in a conversation with Telekom Srbija CEO Vladimir Lucic.
This information suggests that Brent Sadler, a former CNN journalist, could replace Director Aleksandra Subotic as the head of United Media.
For all these reasons, we repeat our demand for a management buyout from United Group in order to preserve editorial independence and secure stable funding so that our newsrooms can continue working in the public interest at full strength.
Mihailo Jovicevic – Editor-in-Chief, Nova.rs
Igor Bozic – Program Director, N1 TV
Ranko Pivljanin – Editor-in-Chief, daily newspaper Nova
Slobodan Georgiev – News Director, Nova TV
Vesna Malisic – Editor-in-Chief, weekly Radar
Dragoljub Draza Petrovic – Editor-in-Chief, daily newspaper Danas
Source: N1
