Television N1 sent an official letter to all relevant institutions of the European Union and international organizations dealing with the protection of journalists and media freedom, in which it pointed out the dramatic escalation of threats and state intimidation campaigns directed against journalists and the N1 newsroom in Serbia.
I am reaching out to you as the News Director of N1 Serbia – an independent news channel and a member of the United Media group, operating under a Luxembourg-based EU media license provider. I feel compelled to alert you to the deeply concerning and escalating threats our newsroom is facing in Serbia.
Over the past weeks, N1 has been targeted in one of the most dangerous state-fueled campaigns against independent media since our founding. The most recent and chilling example — that we will “end up like Charlie Hebdo” — is not an isolated incident, but the culmination of years of smear campaigns led by President Aleksandar Vučić and amplified through state-controlled and pro-government media.
This surge in threats coincides directly with our reporting on ongoing student protests, road blockades, and widespread civil unrest — events the government is attempting to downplay or silence. In retaliation, N1 journalists are now being publicly branded as traitors and “terrorists.” Pro-government tabloids have called for our criminal prosecution, and these false accusations were recently legitimized on national television by the Deputy Public Prosecutor.
We are now receiving dozens of brutal death threats every day — not only directed at our journalists but also at their families. And yet, not a single Serbian institution has responded, condemned the threats, or acted to ensure our safety.
You will find attached a detailed letter outlining the broader state of media freedom in Serbia and the ongoing campaign of intimidation and legal harassment against N1 with specific examples of death threats and hate speech, some of which reference the Charlie Hebdo massacre. We respectfully urge the European Union and its institutions to:
– Strongly condemn the campaign of threats and intimidation against N1
– Urge Serbian authorities to launch immediate investigations into all threats and hold perpetrators accountable
– Reaffirm that press freedom and journalist safety are non-negotiable pillars of the EU accession process
We remain fully committed to our editorial mission, but the personal and professional safety of our newsroom is now under severe threat.
Letter N1 to the European institutions
We are writing to you with utmost urgency to alert you to the unprecedented escalation of threats and state-sponsored persecution faced by the newsroom of N1 Serbia — a regional news broadcaster operating under United Media and licensed by Adria News in Luxembourg.
Our journalists have been assaulted, denigrated by key political figures, denied access or the opportunity to do their job, harassed by the police, blockaded within their facilities by thugs organized by key political figures, sued in myriad SLAPP cases, targeted in mainstream media by countless false accusations, refused commercial opportunities because of editorial policy and threatened in every conceivable manner. These acts are rarely investigated or sanctioned, and are clearly designed to induce censorship, self-censorship, and create a chilling effect on free and independent journalism.
However, in recent weeks, N1 has become the target of one of the most dangerous and coordinated campaigns against a media outlet in Europe in recent memory.
This campaign is personally led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling party in Serbia and is escalated by pro-government tabloids and media outlets that receive generous public funding. It has now reached a dangerous new phase: after two weeks of orchestrated attacks, President Vučić has publicly branded independent outlets as “terrorist media”. Following his remarks, the pro-regime tabloid Informer published a front-page call for criminal prosecution of N1 journalists, accusing them of “supporting the overthrow of the constitutional order” — an utterly baseless and manipulative claim with no legal foundation.
What is even more concerning is that such rhetoric has been legitimized in prime-time television programming by a senior state official — Deputy Public Prosecutor Miodrag Marković — further eroding institutional impartiality and signalling impunity for those threatening journalists. This was not an isolated case, but the culmination of a sustained, state-led smear campaign that has intensified sharply in recent months. Its trigger? Our station’s professional and extensive coverage of student protests, citizen-led road blockades, and widespread social unrest across Serbia — events the government seeks to downplay, suppress, or erase from the public record.
As a result, N1’s editorial team is now subjected to a continuous flood of death threats and hate speech on a daily basis, via letters, emails, social media and open comments. A pro-government activist has visited our newsroom, leaving live animals on our doorstep as a morbid ‘gift’ implying that we ‘breed rabbits, not lions’. The most chilling example came just today, when we received a threat that N1 could “end up like Charlie Hebdo” for its “anti-Serb” activities. This appalling discourse is increasingly intensified and encouraged in Serbia, with another media outlet already receiving round-the-clock security for similar graphic threats in Autumn 2024, assaults on journalists becoming almost routine and instigators never being sanctioned.
Some examples of threats received within the past few days only and reported to the authorities supposed to protect journalists include:
- “You should all be killed, you fascist motherf***ers.”
- “You will hang on Terazije, sooner or later.”
- “You’ll pay for encouraging civil war. We’ll laugh at you just like you laugh at the Serbian people.”
- “Line up and execute these Serb-haters.”
- “Ban this Ustaša N1, they’re poisoning the nation. Police, crush that scum — you have our support. Long live Vučić.”
- “As you have probably already been informed by the Ministry, media outlets such as yours shall be prohibited at the latest by 20 July 2025…we expect an urgent discontinuation of targeting functionaries of the Serbian Progressive Party…we will initiate additional legal actions including financial but also prison consequences for your journalists, which I can guarantee since I personally know judges in the First Basic Court in Belgrade.”
Meanwhile, not a single Serbian institution has reacted. Prosecutors are silent. The Council for Prosecutors, the Ombudsman, the Electronic Media Regulator (REM), and other relevant oversight bodies have failed to respond — not even with a symbolic public condemnation. To the contrary, some representatives of Serbian public institutions allow themselves to be instrumentalized in this campaign of public harassment.
We stress that this is no longer simply political pressure, which is concerning enough, and which has tolerated in Serbia for far too long. This is a coordinated and active, state-tolerated campaign of intimidation — using fear, legal threats, and hate propaganda to destroy a media outlet whose only “offense” is informing the public professionally and independently and giving space to alternative voices which are nowhere to be found elsewhere.
This level of targeting creates a direct security threat to N1 journalists. Serbia has a tragic history of violence against independent journalists, under the watch of some of the same people holding the key levers of power today, and we fear that this climate — if not stopped immediately — will lead to physical attacks or worse.
As Adria News has already stated publicly: if any of our colleagues is harmed, the full responsibility will rest on those who initiated, led, or tolerated this campaign — including political leaders, state officials, prosecutors, and media outlets openly inciting violence.
We therefore urge your institutions to:
- Immediately and publicly condemn the attacks against N1 and its journalists, as well as other independent media in Serbia
- Call on Serbian authorities to investigate all threats without delay
- Demand accountability from public officials who abuse their office to incite hatred
- Reaffirm Serbia’s obligation to uphold media freedom under the European Convention on Human Rights and its EU accession commitments
N1 will not retreat from its journalistic mission. But the cost of silence from institutions — domestic and international — may be irreversible. We trust in your commitment to media freedom, democratic values, and the rule of law, and we hope you will act decisively to support the rights and safety of our journalists and the Serbian public’s right to access free and independent information.
Failure to do so at this point may very well mean that it will be too late tomorrow.
Source: N1
