United Media outlets warn of new risk to editorial independence

The letter to the European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe and international journalists’ organizations recalled that their owner United Group and BC Partners rejected the management buyout proposal made by the managements of N1, Nova S, Radar weekly, Danas daily and Forbes Serbia while announcing a new editorial structure presented as steps to strengthen independence and governance.

The editors of the United Media outlets said that is unacceptable to them and added that they have no confidence in the intentions of the owners.

This is the letter:

“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 presented as steps to “strengthen independence and governance,” we as editors cannot accept such measures, as we currently have no confidence in their intent, transparency, or potential impact on editorial autonomy. This 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 Lucic, 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. Against this background, the latest announcements of new measures, yet coming from the same individuals who earlier assured political actors that they would “make the news business in Serbia small” - can only reasonably be understood as a continuation of those commitments, particularly as 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 discovered by international network OCCRP;
• no explanation of the close association between the new management and the strategic legal counsel of Telekom Srbija, or their actions in threatening N1 journalists in Belgrade with dismissal for attempting to do their job;
• 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;
• and 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 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 says 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, 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 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.

Directors and Editors of United Media assets:

Igor Bozic, News Director, N1 Serbia

Tihomir Ladisic, News Director, N1 Croatia

Katja Seruga, News Director, N1 Slovenia

Amir Zukic, News Director, N1 Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mihailo Jovicevic, Editor-in-Chief, Nova.rs

Ranko Pivljanin, Editor-in-Chief, Nova daily

Dragoljub Petrovic, Editor-in-Chief, Danas daily

Slobodan Georgiev, Director of News, Nova TV

Ivan Radak, Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Serbia

Vesna Malisic, Editor-in-Chief, Radar weekly