Photo: Milica Vučković/FoNetThe new media laws should enable the Serbian authorities to expel United Group and its media from the country, says N1 program director Igor Božić.
"Now Telekom could start buying television stations with a national frequency, Prva and B92," explains N1 director Igor Božić, after the Serbian Parliament voted on new media laws on Thursday.
The amendments to the law were generally welcomed by the professional public - except for one provision. Namely, the state-owned Telecom will now be able to legally establish its own media.
This was met with sharp protests by the opposition, the public and the United Group (UG), which in Serbia owns, among others, the television stations Nova S, N1, SportKlub, the newspapers Nova and Danas, and numerous portals.
"Their whole business model is to watch what UG is doing. When UG has a sports network, they also get a sports network and pay ten times more for broadcasting rights. When UG has an information channel, they make three channels and pay ten times more," says Božić in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
"It can do all this with the state's hinterland and borrowing that has officially reached two billion euros. Since no one will lend them money anymore, the National Bank enters the game. And the debt will have to be paid back by the citizens at the end of the ballad," adds Božić.
He also says that there is a fear at N1 television that their owners could completely withdraw from business in Serbia because they cannot compete against the state-owned company whose goal, as he states, is not market competition but the abolition of competition.
"The authorities cannot arrest the owners of BC Partners, the investment fund that is the majority owner of UG." That is why the government puts pressure on a man of Serbian origin (Dragan Šolak, ed.), who individually has the most shares in UG, harasses him daily through the media with the aim of driving UG out of Serbia," Božić believes.
When asked if the authorities in Serbia do not understand that there is a media "valve", Božić says that even a third of households that can see N1 or Nova S become a problem because the rating of Naprednjak is falling.
"So, that third of households is not small because they can see what is happening, hear what the opposition says and see the stories that are hidden on the state media. Then every free screen becomes a problem for this government," adds Božić.
When asked whether he defends the freedom of the media or the economic interests of the owners, Božić answers: "We rely on what the company does." If that company goes away, you won't have that media. Therefore, we are defending our survival, not investors and their business."
NR/DW
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