Criminal charges were filed against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the CEO of the state-controlled Telekom Serbia Vladimir Lucic for trading in influence in the case of United Media which owns a number of independent media outlets, the Beta news agency reported.
The Ustavobranitelji (Defenders of the Constitution) anti-corruption initiative filed the charges with the Organized Crime Prosecution following the release of an audio recording of a conversation between Lucic and United Group CEO Stan Miller in which they discussed replacing United Media CEO Aleksandar Subotic. United Group, owned by BC Partners, is United Media’s parent company. Days before the recording was made public by OCCRP, United Group RS Beograd DOO saw its CEO replaced by a man who spent years at the state telecommunications watchdog RATEL.
United Media owns N1, Nova S, Danas daily and Radar weekly and their web portals.
The filing with the charges by the initiative said that changes at the head of United Media would bring changes to the editorial policies of the remaining free media in Serbia which are not under government control, further deteriorating the existing situation on the media scene in the country. It warned that this would mean that there were no critical tones towards the current regime.
Ustavobranitelji called the Organized Crime Prosecution to launch an investigation, interview Vucic and Lucic, have experts examine the audio recording and gather all digital and written documents and exchanges, take witness statements and anything else the investigation needs.
The filing was signed by the initiative’s senior officials lawyers Jovan Rajic, Cedomir Kokanovic and Ivan Ninic.
Source: N1
