Veteran journalist Senad Avdic: N1’s destiny concerns us all

Avdic argued that as long as independent media exist, authoritarian regimes will fear for their survival. He warned that the fate of United Media, particularly N1 Television, which has been one of the few professional and independent news voices in the region for over a decade, is now of regional importance.

Citing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s statement that “the road to power is possible only if you control your own media”, Avdic drew parallels between Orban’s approach and the growing tendency of regional autocrats to suppress free press. He noted that Orban’s strategies have influenced leaders such as Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic and Republika Srpska’s Milorad Dodik, who increasingly seek to bring critical media outlets under control.

Avdic also referred to recent reports that a media group close to Orban’s ruling Fidesz party had acquired Blikk, Hungary’s most-read daily newspaper, just months before elections, an act criticized as cementing government control over the press.

He linked these developments to Serbia, where President Vucic has yet to call early elections amid rising public unrest. According to Avdic, the regime’s efforts to extend influence over United Media, home to N1, Nova S, Danas, and Radar, are part of a broader attempt to silence the last bastions of independent journalism.

Concerns deepened after an audio recording surfaced of a conversation between United Group CEO Stana Miller and Telekom Srbija director Vladimir Lucic, a close Vucic ally, in which Lucic claimed the Serbian president personally demanded the dismissal of United Media’s executive Aleksandra Subotic.

In response, the management teams of N1, Nova, Radar, and Danas launched a management buyout initiative, offering to purchase United Media’s regional outlets on market terms with the support of credible external investors.

Avdic concluded that if media freedom in Serbia collapses, the repercussions will extend across the Balkans. The suppression of independent journalism in one country, he warned, could embolden authoritarian leaders elsewhere to replicate the same tactics, threatening what remains of the region’s shared democratic media space.