Attack on the media: What will happen to televisions N1 and Nova S?

Editors and journalists in the media United groups they don't know if and how long they will be able to work freely. Big money and behind-the-scenes deals are at stake. And the regime's belief that it would be easier to stay in power if there is no critical media.

In the saga around media United Group in Serbia only two things are guaranteed in the game - great uncertainty and big money.

In the last episode, the minority owner and former head of the group, Dragan Šolak, received 250 million euros from a company owned by BC Partners as a bonus for the "successful sale" of a large part of the business in Serbia.

That "successful sale" admittedly started a little hell for hundreds of journalists in Serbia who work in media such as N1, Nova S, Danas, Radar and others under the auspices of the United Group.

Since Sholak was removed from the head of the corporation, the new leaders allegedly did not guarantee funding and editorial freedom to these media.

In addition to big money and hundreds of jobs, the future of information in Serbia is also at stake. Because the N1 and Nova S televisions, extremely critical of the authorities of Aleksandar Vučić, have the greatest capacity, the most manpower and money to report on political events.

What is overpaid here?

Several media employees of the United Group, with whom the DW journalist spoke, say that they do not know anything more than what is written in the media. And there is not much written there, although uncertainty is felt.

President Vučić once said that everything would be finished by November, and then that he would not shut down N1 and Nova S, but that their company would shut them down.

"We have no idea what will happen. We are working as normal, but for how long - no one knows," says one journalist. Another source told DW: "I think it's a done deal. They took the money and now there's no going back."

He alludes to the fact that the majority owner of United Group, the investment fund BC Partners, at the beginning of the year started to do what investment funds usually do - to sell more expensive what they bought cheaper.

In a spectacular transfer, the cable operator SBB was sold - which was a safe harbor for broadcasting N1 and Nova S. Also, Net TV plus and the rights to all sports broadcasts were sold to state Telekom - yesterday's competitor.

This turned Telekom into a monopolist on sports content, and brought one and a half billion euros to BC Partners and partly to Sholak, who is still a minority owner.

Is it part of the deal to silence the critical media in the midst of student protests and before the elections, where for the first time there is a real chance that the Serbian Progressive Party will lose?

Many doubted it because of the exorbitant price that Serbian Telekom paid. Doubts were only fueled when a telephone conversation between the leaders of the United Group and Telekom surfaced, in which they discussed how to weaken the United media.

If we are still waiting for the outcome, something has already happened - on both major cable operators, SBB and Telekom, all regime and tabloid television stations are now present.

"Like in Saigon in 1975"

United Group media editorial offices have repeatedly appealed to their owners to give them guarantees of survival. The amount was also mentioned for the first time - for the N1 and Nova S, they say, they need twelve million euros a year to work properly.

What will happen next? Even Dragoljub Petrović, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Danas, does not know that. "We are in a situation that is completely stupid. We are waiting for the outcome of the conflict in the corporation, and we see, through the recording of the telephone conversation that was published, that President Vučić is also involved."

"That made us even more worried because Vučić does not have good intentions towards the media, which are critical," Petrović told DW. "Now we feel like we are in the American embassy in Saigon in 1975. We are waiting to see what will happen and if we will have to evacuate to a better place."

But what better place? In Serbia, there seems to be a great extinction of independent media. Just since the beginning of the year, with the decisions of US President Donald Trump, the Voice of America has been extinguished, and Free Europe has been brought to the brink. All project financing, which was especially welcome to small and local media in Serbia, was terminated.

The Balkan service of Al Jazeera was closed, while at Juronujuz, which is financed by Serbian Telekom, there was a revolt of journalists against the leading women of that television, and a wave of dismissals and departures.

That's why Petrović says that shutting down or silencing the media of United Group would be "dramatic". "Today, it is a small media that might be able to get out on its own, because before it was independent and somehow worked with muscles and small salaries. But these televisions cannot work with a stick and string, it is an expensive production."

The savior of Silicon Valley?

This is where Nenad Milanović, the founder of the software company Cake, which is reportedly worth over a billion dollars in America, enters the story. This IT guy is an open opponent of the Serbian regime, and is also a fan of Donald Trump. He helped students financially, and a few days ago he registered the media platform vazd.com.

At the media festival in Rovinj last weekend, he revealed a part of the plan - to house journalists on that platform who would eventually lose their jobs at N1 and Nova S televisions.

According to information from DW, Milanović is working on finding space for a studio and equipment. But among those in the know, few are convinced that Milanović could officially buy two televisions or pay the mentioned twelve million euros per year, for the full program and staff.

At the same time, a blow to the less independent media came from the Kremlin. The Russian SVR service allegedly established that the Vreme weekly, the FoNet agency, the local media Južne vesti, Boom 93, Podrinske and others are participating in the preparation of "Maidan" in Serbia, paid with money from Brussels.

The climax will reportedly be on November 1, the anniversary of the fall of the canopy that claimed sixteen lives at the Novi Sad railway station last year. President Vučić thanked the Russians for this "information" and said that everything will be investigated.

Have the years gone by when the regime in Belgrade still tolerated critical media?

"Vučić always needs the media with whom he will go to war, to accuse them of working for him. But now he is very close to falling from power, the protests are not calming down, and now I guess he is counting on it being easier to rule without these large critical television stations," says Dragoljub Petrović.

The editors and media employees of United Group have only one more hope - that the dust that has risen will still force the owners from the investment fund to pull the handbrake. The denouement of the saga may be around the corner.