While the journalists of N1, Nova S and other media are on “silent fire” due to changes in the company, United Group claims – there is no reason to fear. They say they are not in business with the Serbian authorities
“There is no word on potential plans to sell.” So in United Group answer Deutsche Welle’s question about whether the changes in that corporation are a prelude to the sale of media from the former Yugoslavia, including television N1 and New S.
The group has recently been under the hood. Adria News Network (ANN) put all these media that was previously managed by United Media, their other daughter company.
Now the media has a new editorial board, headed by Brent Sadler (75), and there is also a new board of directors. Several sources among the editors and journalists expressed their fear that this is a prelude to changes of editors or “adaptation” of the critical content of the media in Serbia.
The United group rejects all that and states that the goal is to protect independent reporting. They did not specifically answer the question why they ignored the offer of the employees of N1 and Nova S to “buy out” the media with the support of unnamed partners.
There will be no layoffs?
When asked what kind of changes viewers and readers can expect – because why restructuring if everything in the program will remain the same? – from the United Group claim: “Editors will continue to have authority over content and make day-to-day editorial decisions.”
The whole idea, they say, is to create a platform for independent journalism in the Balkans, and “not to reduce the number of employees or costs.”
Executive news editor, Sadler’s official position, “exists to protect editorial independence across the organization and ensure a balanced and fair product that meets journalistic standards.”
As they state, the formation of ANN is the fulfillment of the promise from last July that they would put newsrooms (“news operations”) on “completely independent feet”. That decision, they add, was supported by the majority owner, the BC Partners investment fund.
It was previously known that the restructuring and sale of parts of the group was not supported by minority owner Dragan Šolak, who was also removed from management positions.
The new framework for the media is, according to the United Group, “designed precisely to ensure that there is no undue influence from the authorities, political players, shareholders or management of the United Group.”
Silent Fire for Journalists
As Deutsche Welle wrote these days, the editors and journalists of N1, Nova S, the daily newspaper Danas and the weekly Radar are not really convinced that a renaissance of independent journalism awaits them.
Several interlocutors from these media say that the whole operation took too long and cost too much for everything to remain the same.
Rade Veljanovski, retired professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences, thinks similarly. “It seems to me that a final showdown is being prepared in which the government would completely suppress the possibility of independent journalism,” he said.
The worm of doubt crept in a year ago, when United Group sold the cable operator SBB, and sold the rights to sports broadcasts to the Serbian state Telekom.
Safety of journalists “priority”
The United group, on the other hand, rejects that there were or will be any agreements with the Serbian authorities, while regarding the secretly recorded telephone conversation between their first man Sten Miller and the first man of Telekom Vladimir Lucic, they state that the recording was “unauthorized and illegal” and “taken out of context”.
When asked about the frequent name-calling and threats faced by journalists of N1 and other media – and the culprits are from the government or media close to it – the United group says that the safety of journalists is a priority, and that they must work without intimidation, pressure or threats.
They say ANN will take “all necessary steps” to protect its journalists. They did not specify what steps.
Source: Vreme
