As of September 23, the board of Adria News S.à r.l., the Luxembourg-registered company that formally owns N1 TV, has five new members, including United Group CEO Stan Miller.
The new board members – Miller, Niall John Martin, Timothy Lincoln Pennington, Thomas Probst, and Guibert Marie C. Schroyen – have taken over the powers previously held by the company’s former directors.
This move comes just one month after the investigative network OCCRP released a recording of a conversation between Miller and Telekom Srbija CEO Vladimir Lucic, in which Miller discusses scaling down United Group’s operations in Serbia.
According to the recording, this decision stemmed from an agreement between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Nikos Stathopoulos, a representative of United Group’s majority owner, London-based BC Partners.
Numerous editors of independent media outlets in Serbia reacted to the recording, demanding an investigation and explanation from Miller, United Group, and BC Partners: specifically, whether the company was indeed planning to reduce its operations in Serbia and what that could mean for N1’s future. However, no substantive responses were provided—only vague statements about “supporting independent journalism” without concrete explanations or assurances.
A telling incident took place at Belgrade’s Hotel Bristol, where an N1 journalist attempted to question Stan Miller. Instead of a response, she was escorted out of the hotel while Miller was in the company of Telekom Srbija’s lawyers.
This event only reinforced the perception that United Group’s leadership is increasingly cozying up to the authorities in Belgrade while sidestepping meaningful dialogue with its own journalists and editors.
Source: N1
