Speaking about the future of media operating under United Group, N1 TV Program Director Igor Bozic said it is “a question of how the group will react after all of this,” adding that the situation can be summed up in one word: “uncertainty.”
“It’s our job to warn about that uncertainty, to prepare the public for the possibility that the group might decide, colloquially speaking, to ‘throw us under the bus.’ Or, they might realize that would be truly bad for their reputation and try, at least in a photo finish, to salvage it, because it is not a good look to be known for destroying free media in Serbia,” Bozic said.
He added that “it appears that what the president said means that everything in this country functions and can operate solely at his will and desire.”
“Which, you’ll agree, is an abnormal situation in a country that should be democratic and operate by all standards. What we heard from him confirms that everything done in this country is by his dictate, and we heard in the recording that he asked the United Group director, that it’s a kind of agreement. He didn’t want to do it transparently and openly – yes, the state can shut down any media if it wants to, but that would look bad to the international community, it would truly resemble Belarus, and he is trying to play a game to show he does everything by the rules. I think here he’s trying to get around those rules and work behind our backs,” Bozic explained.
He said that “what is currently happening with the group’s media in Serbia is clearly a direct influence of the president.”
“Who, I will remind you, is trying to control all media, and when he realized he cannot do that with the UG media outlets, he evidently found a way to do it with money,” Bozic added.
“Here we have a fundamental problem, and that is the direct interference of a state in the operations of a private company, which is unacceptable anywhere in the world. If such a scandal were to happen in America, I think impeachment proceedings for the president would be initiated. These are things that shouldn’t be done in democratic states,” he said.
The interest of private companies is to make money, Bozic noted.
“That is why companies exist, I don’t think there’s any other political interest in that sense. It leaves a bitter impression that someone in the company who decided to make money turned a blind eye to everything our journalists go through in this country, to all the threats we get, to the batons, death threats, and they failed to stand up for journalists working in the public interest. It leaves a seriously bitter impression that a business project is more important than the human element. I think a way has been found for a state-owned company to use its power to subjugate media, and in this case, a state-owned company, with the president’s approval, evidently launched an action to subdue the media that are not under (Serbian President Aleksandar) Vucic’s control,” he said.
Bozic emphasized that “journalists are free beings and they think freely.”
“If people in Serbia want to live in a system where there is one boss, where their voice and their opinion are not heard, then we will get there. The entire system is made so that you have one supreme boss from whom everything originates. Free journalists shouldn’t think that way, they are here to ask questions and give people answers. We are a free television station and we will remain so to the end. We are part of a company, we will work in the company’s interest, but not in a way that means hiding information from the public,” he said.
Source: N1
