Things with United Group media it seems that they are going exactly according to the plan, the indications of which were in the secretly recorded and published the conversation between the head of the group, Sten Miller, and the first man of Serbian Telekom, Vladimir Lučić.
Watching the N1 and Nova televisions, reading the daily newspaper Danas or the weekly Radar, the audience would not yet be able to sense any change in the editorial policy.
However, "Vremena" sources from those media - and now almost no one is ready to speak by name - have no doubt that the latest changes in the company are a confirmation of where things are going.
Sadler "fixed" on N1
On Wednesday (April 8) is an experienced British journalist Brent Sadler officially registered as director of N1 instead of Igor Božić. Because of that shift, employees of N1 protested, with the support of citizens and colleagues.
Sadler, a sort of special operations man, is slated to take similar positions at Nova and Dan Graf, publisher of the Danas newspaper. Earlier, Sadler was already at the head of the "editorial board".
"He is first fixated on N1," says one "Vremen" interlocutor. It is therefore no surprise, he adds, that Igor Božić received the first blow. It was clear from the N1 program itself that Božić was not ready for "flexibility" - N1 himself openly and critically reported on the situation in the company.
"However, for now, neither Sadler nor anyone else has said a word about the program, that this or that can or cannot be published. We are working as before," adds the source.
Brent Sadler himself did not respond to calls and messages from "Vremi".
Goal – elections
The Miller-Lucic plan clearly means an attack on the people who are perceived as the confidants of the former first man of the company, Dragan Šolak. Šolak, as a minority owner, did not agree with the division of the company, the sale of cable operator SBB and sports rights.
But why all that? Everyone familiar with the matter and the Serbian media bazaar believe that the goal cannot be other than some kind of adaptation or at least softening the critical tone of these media until the parliamentary elections, the first which the regime of Aleksandar Vučić has a real chance of losing.
At the same time, no one expects any thunderous cuts or failures in the waves, but rather a quiet change.
When the line is drawn, things are bad for informing the citizens of Serbia because N1 and Nova are the most powerful critical media in the country financially, and thus programmatically.
According to Željko Bodrožić, president of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, it was a refuge for numerous independent and professional journalists.
"But the bad experiences with B92 and Blica, where the foreign owners succumbed to the influence of Vučić and his team in power and slowly dispersed independent and professional journalists and equated the editorial policy with regime propaganda, instilled the fear that something like this could happen with the media of the United Group," Bodrožić told Vreme.
"Unfortunately, the process of appropriating these media began far from the public eye three or four years ago, and accelerated with the strengthening of anti-regime protests and is now in its final phase," he believes.
Is there still hope?
In public statements, people from these media are still clinging to the straw of hope and reminding the company of the promises made so far - that the editorial policy will not change and that the regime will not have an influence.
After all, this was recently stated by United Group itself, claiming that there will be neither layoffs nor cost cutting. "Editors will continue to have authority over content and make day-to-day editorial decisions," they said in their responses to DW.
Bodrožić doesn't really believe that, but says that "fortunately, the regime is shaking with protests" and that "he gambled away the trust of many European protectors, which the bosses from BC Partners can clearly see."
"So, despite the enormous pressure from Vučić, the process of neutralizing N1, Nova, Danas and Radar has slowed down, and maybe it will be stopped, because I hope that Brent Sadler, who was appointed in front of the majority owners to 'reorganize' the media, does not care that he has been mentioned for months by the European and World Federation of Journalists and many reputable international organizations and individuals," adds Bodrožić.
If the "cleansing" continues, says Bodrožić, both Sadler and the "commanders" will be included in the series of "villains" who trampled the media. "And some future democratic government should investigate all the facts that led to the capture of the media in Serbia and the suppression of media freedom under Vučić, including the role of Miller, Sadler and their bosses in that operation."
However, the fear of both journalists and the rebellious public is that until then, it will be a particularly bad time for both independent media and citizens. And that the regime is ready to do anything in order to survive, let alone to impress some media, in an operation that has already cost billions of euros of public money, given through the state Telecom.
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