Written by: Igor Božić, program director of N1
It's Saturday, noon. Al Jazeera Balkans first news from Sarajevo. Everything is going as usual. News about the attacks in Gaza, followed by news from the war in Ukraine, then about the situation on the streets of Serbia due to the blockades, a story about why there is no water in Vrdnik, then sign off.
"This was our last diary, after 14 years. We gave a voice to those who had nowhere to be heard," says the perfectly dressed host, the camera pans towards the spotlights, the lights go out.
The last news ended without drama, following its fourteen-year editorial policy. On AJB you could hear and see all the news, always from a distance, without a personal stamp, without emotions. There was almost never a departure from the scheme due to extraordinary events, but for those who wanted to be informed, AJB was the place where they could certainly see the most important stories from the region.
The news of the shutdown came suddenly and was a real surprise. No one expected the global network from Qatar to shut down a project they had funded for almost a decade and a half. The reasoning that it is a question of financial unprofitability does not seem very convincing because such news channel projects cannot bring in profit. We should not forget that Al Jazeera had an experiment in the USA, when after investing one billion dollars, it shut down the network in America after only one year. That move seemed logical because the Qatari owners realized that the Americans simply refused to be informed through a channel coming from the Middle East, regardless of the fact that they were watching experienced American journalists on the screen. The investment in the Balkans, with the involvement of experienced local professionals, lasted 14 years. Practically in one day, 200 people from the territory of the former Yugoslavia lost their jobs. These were people who respected the rules of the profession and never went beyond that framework.
GLOBAL STRATEGY: DROWN THE TRUTH WITH SILENCE
Just a few months earlier, we witnessed the sudden shutdown of decades-old media projects from America. One decision terminated the funding of Voice of America (VoA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. When Donald Trump, during his return to the throne in Washington, demanded the shutdown of American services that inform the world, his gesture was interpreted as a populist whim. But he was much more than that. His administration claimed that Voice of America and RFE/RL were "obsolete", that they were run by "leftists" and that it was time for new platforms, more flexible, faster, less demanding. But the real message was: truth is too expensive if it is not in the function of power and if it does not serve the ruler.
Official explanations cannot hide what is becoming more and more visible in one year: a global strategy to destroy professional media is at work. Professional media are unprofitable. Or more precisely: undesirable. This year will be remembered in history as the year of the exodus of media professionals. In that spirit, when a regional newsroom like AJB disappears, it is not just a corporate decision. It is a continuation of the global pattern in which first the trust in traditional sources weakens, then those same sources collapse financially, and finally - extinguish without resistance.
THE ISLAND THAT TROUBLED
The islands of reason and verified information are sinking one by one in the global surge of populism. Al Jazeera Balkans was one such island. She asked questions. She dealt with people. It allowed for complexity. In a region where polarization is the norm and propaganda is the currency, AJB journalists were not part of that matrix. Its reporters traveled, reported and fact-checked. Her editors chose the tone, the words, the context. And that was not a little. Reading the jubilation of the regime bots in Serbia, I realize that even that small island was a hindrance to the single-mindedness that mows down everything in front of it. And now, when that island is gone, the question arises: how many news channels are left, how many professional information islands?
N1 UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT OF THE AUTHORITIES
In Serbia, the N1 newsroom lives under pressure, targeting, labels and threats every day. With the removal of Dragan Šolak and Viktorija Bocklag from the head of United Group, the company within which N1 operates, the door has been opened for a potential crisis. There are no direct strikes and open pressures yet, no one is tearing down the walls yet, but rumors are spreading. Immediately after the sale of SBB in April, the President of Serbia, who has been targeting N1 in every address for years, gave a forecast that we are measuring the time until the shutdown by November 2025.
How can Aleksandar Vučić know that? He says, our financing is threatened. It's not true. N1 in Serbia is operating positively. Then why would anyone want to turn off the television that has been the most watched in the SBB network for months? And it must be clear to the new owners of SBB from Yettel that they are their customers exclusively because the difference in the market is made by N1 and Nova. So if we talk about business reasons - the owners (BC partners) and those who broadcast our channels (Yettelu), they can only benefit from having us.
It is clear that for an investment fund, earnings are key and our key fear is whether we will be listed for sale. We are waiting for an answer from our owners, and this especially worries us in Serbia, because it is clear to everyone that the government of Aleksandar Vučić is determined to completely destroy us. That is why it is important for us to get a clear confirmation that we are not for sale. It would be irresponsible to pretend that we do not see the possibility of trying what has already been seen elsewhere. When professional standards become a burden, when independence becomes a cost, and the truth a threat - uncertainty follows.
AIDS IS GOING AWAY – WHO IS LEFT?
Shutting down AJB, shutting down VoA, struggling RFE to survive, possible change of strategy in UG - all these are not isolated incidents. It's part of the bigger picture. Another quiet but powerful message arrived last week: the Swedish development agency SIDA announced that it will withdraw from the Western Balkans and Turkey by June next year.
For those who deal with media freedom, human rights and the development of civil society, it was news that resonates deeper than it appears at first glance. Founded in 1995 as an independent agency of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SIDA was one of the last stable points of international aid in the region. Her presence was not symbolic - it was structural.
The programs included key reforms: rule of law, protection of human rights, strengthening of civil society and support for free media. The withdrawal comes at a time when many organizations are already shaken by the closure of USAID projects, and European funds are overburdened.
This is a new stage in the systemic weakening of public interest infrastructure. Smaller investigative media outlets, documentarians, anti-disinformation initiatives – they all depend on these funds to exist at all. When that support disappears, it's not just future projects that disappear. The trust that there is anyone who wants to maintain them also disappears. The withdrawal of SIDA is not just a unilateral decision by Sweden. It is a symptom of a bigger story: that the space for free, courageous and responsible information is shrinking. If we are left without allies from Europe and the world who are declaratively advocating for democracy, independent journalists are left to fend for themselves.
CHAOS AS A TOOL OF CONTROL
The media is being reshaped. Not in accordance with the needs of the public, but in accordance with the needs of power and the powerful. Information is no longer a value in itself. She became a weapon. And the most effective way to control the truth is not censorship. Chaos already. When you have no one to trust, when everyone is "the same", when facts are a matter of perception, then you are perfectly susceptible to manipulation. In that strategy, the professional media are not the enemy – they are collateral damage.
That is why it is important that N1 remains what it is. And it's not just about self-preservation. It is a matter of public interest. That every day there is someone who asks, checks, insists. Someone make a difference between spin and propaganda. For someone to say what others keep silent. To broadcast live what is happening on the streets. For now, that's what we're doing. With the support of the audience. With a trust that was not given, but earned in the last almost 11 years, with an editorial team that knows why it is here.
WHEN DARKNESS BECOME THE RULE
But we all have to know: if professional journalism is systematically shut down all over the world, it will not bypass us either. And that is why we must not be silent. Not when the lights go out. Because when the lights go out, darkness is not the only consequence. Darkness becomes the rule. That's why you should speak. And record. And write. As long as we have the words, the camera, the space and the audience. No editorial office is eternal. But the idea of truth - it must be. Otherwise, we are left with regime propaganda, chaotic unverified information on social networks that cannot replace professional media, however much some may think it is enough.
