Easter should also be a time for tolerance. But - hey. The head of state and of each country individually started a barrage of insults, slanders and attacks, rare even by local standards (see page 8). His target is the University of Belgrade, students, professors and, by no means the last, United Media.
The reader knows: Brent Sadler - Serbian son-in-law and retired special operations journalist - is listed as director of N1, "Nova" and "Danasa". However, in different ways. It is not the same with each of these media. This means that he is a co-director everywhere except in N1. The previous director, Igor Božić, was dismissed there, and Sadler was appointed to his position. But that was just the beginning.
UNCERTAINTY AND CONFUSION
The new administration forbade Božić from performing directorial and editorial activities, and strongly recommended that he not come to the editorial office and work at home. What can he do from his apartment? Didn't the man just get banned from doing his job?
The N1 program continues as before. But - for how long? Fear is greater than hope. Why? Because it was Sadler who promised on April 3, as Božić told Vreme, "that nothing will change editorially, and that I will continue to lead the editorial office as I have done so far."
So now trust the new administration if you can.
The current strike on N1 has its own prehistory. This is the already famous telephone conversation between Vladimir Lucic and Sten Miller from August 2025. At that time, the director of Telekom Serbia said that the President of Serbia asked to remove Aleksandra Subotic, under whose auspices N1, "Nova S", "Danas" and "Radar" worked. To that, the director of the United group replied that he would relieve her of her duties, but that before that she had to make United Media "very small in Serbia".
Although not everything went according to plan, Subotic was fired in mid-February. Now - a month and a half later - the second phase of the attack on the United group took place. This part of the operations started with the dismissal of Božić and the signing of Sadler as director of N1 and co-director of other media groups. Its code name can freely read - "Thousand cuts".
The purpose of the entire operation is to introduce uncertainty and confusion into the journalist collectives. Will they keep their jobs and in what positions? Will the editorial policy change and in what direction? How much will the new administration respect the journalistic code and professional standards? What will happen if censorship begins - first covertly, then openly?
Sadler and his team do not answer these and other questions. They know what they are doing - there is nothing worse for the media than dealing with itself when it becomes news. They probably expect that under the "thousand cuts" regime, which are imposed monotonously but relentlessly, anxiety about making decisions, self-censorship, demotivation for professional work, resignation to fate, lethargy will move into the newsrooms...
MEDIA TERMITES
Building a "very small company" of N1, Nova and others into United Media will take time, but Sadler and company reckon they have it. Like termites, they are able to eat the essence of these media so that only a thin crust remains on the surface, which disintegrates at the slightest touch. If they succeed - and they probably won't - Sadler can repeat like a parrot how they continue to work "in accordance with the highest professional standards". This is what every tabloid editor and director says anyway. For all of them, the truth is not an argument.
But why does an investment fund want to make its successful media companies small and essentially insignificant? The answer lies in the progressive regime and the cult of personality that metastasized within it.
When Vučić asked Sten Miller and the United Group to fire Subotic, he had to offer them something in return. Multinational companies are not known for free fulfillment of wishes, but they are for the fact that they are not squeamish about anything when it comes to earnings, especially big and secure ones. What kind of privileged business is given in exchange for destroying professional journalism? I guess that will surface one day.
For many years, the public has known that Vučić "cannot see" N1 and "Nova" with his eyes. There is no such insult and invective with which he did not honor them. When he says that he does not deal with these two television stations, he is as convincing as Sadler's promise that Igor Božić "will lead the newsroom as before."
Nevertheless, one must remain confused in the search for an answer as to why Vučić is so obsessed with two TV companies, since he completely controls more than ninety percent of the media. Is it possible that N1 and "Nova S" overpowered them?
THE COMBINATION OF PARALLEL REALITY AND BENSENDIN
As Dragan Ilić wrote in issue 1838, Vučić accepts only two types of programs. The first ones contain only his propaganda and there he interviews himself until the cameras are rolling, while the others have everything but politics and information.
That ideal combination of parallel reality and Benzene was seriously shaken by N1 and "Nova", especially after the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad. It is not a small number of citizens who - even if they vote for SNS - are informed on these two televisions. There, he will see how things are on the streets, learn about the country's various problems, hear people who think for themselves, unlike so many of the regime's evet effendi...
It is quite possible that Vučić himself belongs to this audience. Nobody needs to explain to him the propaganda he creates. But, obsessed with personal rating and control of the media, he is certainly aware that spin politics is working less and less for him. Repeated so many times, empty, untrue and insincere, it goes in one ear and out the other. That's why Sadler is here to saddle N1 and "Nova". In Serbia, informative black darkness will reign on every screen...
What will happen next?
We should believe that journalists and other media personnel within United Media will defend their right to journalistic freedom, on which their editorial policy rests. Also, that in that defense there will be no lack of solidarity and support from colleagues and numerous audiences.
