United Media editors warn EU of direct threat to editorial independence

We publish the letter in full:

Dear all,

We write to you as the editorial teams of United Group’s independent media – N1, Nova, Nova.rs, Danas and Radar – to alert you to developments that now pose a direct risk to our editorial independence and the integrity of our newsrooms.

Last week, our majority owner – United Group and BC Partners – rejected our management buyout proposal and announced a series of measures to restructure media operations across the region. According to information available to us, one of the planned steps appears to involve imposing an entirely new editorial structure.

Although these changes have been presented as measures to “strengthen independence and governance,” we as editors cannot accept such steps, as we currently have no confidence in their intent, transparency, or potential impact on editorial autonomy. Our concern is grounded in the following:

An audio recording published this summer, capturing a conversation between United Group CEO Stan Miller and Telekom Srbija Director Vladimir Lučić, appeared to include discussions about weakening United Media’s news operations in Serbia, reorganizing the business, and pursuing the dismissal of United Media’s CEO.

In this context, the latest announcements, coming from the same individuals who earlier assured political actors they would “make the news business in Serbia small”, can only reasonably be understood as a continuation of those commitments, especially since neither the United Group Board nor BC Partners has publicly distanced itself from these statements.

For months, the majority shareholder has demonstrated a striking lack of transparency and accountability in managing media operations in one of Europe’s most sensitive regions. Key issues remain unaddressed:

• no action or disclosure regarding the region’s largest corporate scandal uncovered by OCCRP;
• no explanation of the close association between the new management and the strategic legal counsel of Telekom Srbija, nor their actions in threatening N1 journalists with dismissal;
• no response to concerns raised by the European Parliament, European Commission, international media organizations, or global partners such as Forbes;
• no engagement with editorial leadership on strategy, governance models, or future plans;
• no meaningful support for journalists facing daily political and physical attacks, despite a publicly declared “zero-tolerance” policy.

Given the lack of transparency, the evident risk of political influence, and the exclusion of editorial leadership from all decision-making, we cannot accept any restructuring measures proposed by management or shareholders.

Our award-winning editorial teams are internationally recognized as independent and essential to the public interest in a region with some of the lowest media-freedom standards in Europe. Our editorial charters and strict non-interference rules already follow the strongest global benchmarks and have safeguarded our independence in an extremely challenging environment.

We proposed a management buyout precisely to secure long-term editorial independence after years of escalating pressure. And while the majority owner claims they do not wish to sell the business to a third party, we are not a third party - we are the people who built these brands from the ground up.

We remain convinced that this is the only viable solution capable of preventing the imposition of an editorial structure vulnerable to political influence. Our proposal was concrete, serious, and supported by an international media development fund with a proven record of strengthening independent news organizations worldwide.

Given the seriousness of the risks described above, we respectfully appeal to the European Commission, the European Parliament, the EEAS, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and leading international media-freedom organizations to:

• urge the shareholders to reconsider the management buyout, which remains the most transparent, sustainable, and independence-protecting solution;
• request full transparency from BC Partners and United Group regarding any proposed governance models or safeguards affecting editorial independence;
• publicly reaffirm the importance of N1, Nova and other United Media outlets to media pluralism in the Western Balkans, a region marked by democratic backsliding;
• make clear to Serbian authorities that any interference- direct or indirect - in the functioning of independent media is incompatible with European values and standards.

Your engagement at this critical moment would send an important signal, to our journalists and to the society we serve, that safeguarding independent journalism in Serbia remains a European priority.

Sincerely,

Directors and Editors of United Media assets:

• Tihomir Ladišić, News Director, N1 Croatia
• Katja Šeruga, News Director, N1 Slovenia
• Amir Zukić, News Director, N1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Mihailo Jovicević, Editor-in-Chief, Nova.rs
• Ranko Pivljanin, Editor-in-Chief, Nova daily
• Dragoljub Petrović, Editor-in-Chief, Danas daily
• Slobodan Georgiev, Director of News, Nova TV
• Ivan Radak, Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Serbia
• Vesna Mališić, Editor-in-Chief, Radar weekly