Slobodan Prvanovic, an advisor to the Institute for Physics, told N1 late on Sunday that preventing a broader audience to watch N1 TV was “a step toward a dictatorship” in Serbia, adding he strongly condemned the move.

Speaking at the Impression of the Week talk show at Nova S TV, Prvanovic also said he asked the academic community to express its view, adding he expected a statement on Monday.

He said that what was happening to N1 was extremely worrying and added that the atmosphere in the society would have been different if people had information from multiple sources. “I think that many things would be different since people don’t know what political offers are and what they can vote for. If they had access to all information about who was advocating what the parties’ percentage would have been different,” Prvanovic said.

 Jovo Bakic, a sociologist. Said it was important that N1 could be seen because the TV channels with national frequency, as he put it, did not do their job, i.e., did it badly. “Pink and Happy (considered pro-regime channels with national frequency) are poisoning and committing crimes over their own people. It’s unbelievable that that exists on TV channels with national frequency. People are drugged en masse daily,” he added.

He said N1 was cultivating the culture of dialogue, and “that is a completely different situation,” adding there was no such thing as “absolutely objective TV.

Vladimir Vuletic, a sociologist and a member of the state RTS TV Managing Board, disagree, saying “N1 objectivity is famous.”  He added the idea was to “demonise RTS and glorify N1.”

“That shows that behind the attacks on RTS is a commercial battle,” he added.