OCCRP Publisher Drew Sullivan told N1 on Monday that he expects the efforts to shut down N1 to continue, adding that the release of an audio recording between the CEO’s of United Group and Telekom Serbia was followed by attacks but not denials of its authenticity.
Sullivan, co-founder Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), said that Telekom Serbia did make some kind of denial but that United Group confirmed the authenticity of the conversation between its CEO Stan Miller and his Serbian counterpart Vladimir Lucic. He said the whole thing is clear and added that he is disappointed by the fact that the focus wasn’t on what they said but that they said anything at all. Sullivan said that Telekom Serbia will face a problem if it files suit over the leaked recording because United Group confirmed its authenticity.
According to him, attacks ensued and attempts to find out who leaked the recording. Vucic seems to be spinning conspiracy theories to explain everything but no one denied that the government was in communication with United Group in an attempt to take control of N1, he added. Sullivan feels that Vucic’s statement that this is an international spy scandal is typical in a society full of misinformation. He said some other story is being drawn up to draw attention away from the issue. This is disappointing but not surprising, he said.
He said the whole thing seems to be part of a wider process since the transcript of the recording indicates that talks were held earlier between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and senior BC Partners manager Nikos Stathopoulos. This seems to be a top-level discussion that began months ago when Vucic said that N1 staff would be fired. Sullivan said the issue was not completely hidden and seems to have been underway at top level at BC Partners which, he added, is disturbing because companies should not be helping government throttle media, especially the only TV station reporting on the protests.
Asked about the reactions of the Serbian president and his media advisor Suzana Vasiljevic, Sullivan said Vucic has no credibility because he has been placing misinformation to the public for a long time, meaning that his words have to be taken with a lot of reservation. He really can’t be trusted, he and added that his manner of contradicting himself is typical for a misinformation campaign which is the essence of this issue. The reality is that N1 is very important in Serbia because it provide the public with the story no one else is telling, apart from some print media. That is crucial because the images from the protests are crucial to understanding what’s happening. That’s what moves people, he said.
We know the Serbian government is very closely linked to organized crime – we even consider it a criminal group – and it engages people to beat up protesters, he said and warned that the violence will get worse. That is when they don’t want images of the police and hooligans beating up students to come out because that does not look good which is the reason for this determined effort to remove N1 from TV screens, Sullivan said.
According to Sullivan, the claims that the audio recording is not complete are a lie. He said that he listened to the entire recorded conversation with the two men’s greetings and goodbyes. We (OCCRP) provided the relevant information, he said and added that people not relevant to the story have to be protected sometimes. He said that every important detail and a lot of other things are there providing the public with 99.9 percent of what was said. They are trying to control a TV channel that is not under their control because an autocrat can’t rule a country without controlling the media especially during protests.
Sullivan said he does not expect Vucic to give up his attempts to take over N1 since he can’t afford to loose control because the protests are very serious and deeply rooted in the Serbian public. He recalled a history of protests against leaders who overstepped the mark such as Slobodan Milosevic who faced the same problem. He (Vucic) knows that if he loses control he will spend a long time in jail and I expect the violence to increase with even more attempts to shut down N1 with claims that the station did something wrong, Sullivan said.
Source: N1
