Serbia is heading for an election, and it starts with the independent media

Belgrade. The decisive day will be 25 October. This was decided by the electoral commission, and by Aleksandar Vučić, Serbia’s strongman, after Prime Minister Duro Macut urged him to dissolve the government and call a snap election. The contest, however, will be heavily lopsided from the outset. Beyond the risk of electoral fraud and an already intense political clash, there is a ‘media issue’ that links Serbia, Hungary and Portugal. And it began some time ago: last summer, the investigative journalism website Krik published the audio of a telephone call. On one end of the line is Vladimir Lukic, CEO of Telekom Srbija; on the other is Stan Miller, a former CNN reporter and CEO of United Media, the country’s leading independent media group.

The content is far from edifying: “Tell the president to be patient. I’m a man of my word. I cannot dismiss my editors just yet; to do what you are asking, I would have to scale United Media down to something small, so that it becomes harmless. But you know I am the right man for the job,” says Miller. He and Lukic are making arrangements to break up United, which owns the country’s most prestigious independent media outlets: the N1 all-news network, the Nova.rs portal and the daily newspapers Danas and Radar. “We’d already suspected something for months; the call simply opened our eyes,” says Marija (not her real name), a former high-profile employee of United Media, which was rebranded as Adria News Network (ANN) a few months later. According to her, Telekom has adopted an aggressive acquisition strategy with the sole aim of clipping the wings of its former group. “Telekom Srbija is 60 per cent publicly owned. Over the years, I’ve made a rough calculation of how much all these media outlets would have cost them: more than 600 million euros – investments that can never be recouped. But they were clever when they decided to bring Alpac Capital into the picture.” Alpac Capital is the private investment fund linked to Pedro Vargas David, the owner of Euronews. On 29 May, Miller announced an agreement between Alpac and Ann for the sale of the group to the Portuguese tycoon. Vargas David is ideologically very close to Viktor Orbán, who in turn is close to Vučić. “Let’s bear one important thing in mind: in Serbia, Telekom owns 34 media outlets. It is the country’s second-largest media group after Željko Mitrović (who is also aligned with the government). It also runs Euronews Srbija, which supports the government,” says Marija. “Vucic has been clever: when dealing with the European institutions, he can say that Telekom Srbija is an independent public body; whilst regarding Euronews, he can claim that he has chosen to favour a major European group, based in Brussels.”

On 27 August, the acquisition of United Media was approved by the Serbian regulatory body. Approval is still pending from the Luxembourg authorities, where United has its registered office: the founders believed that remaining there would shield them from pressure from Belgrade. Despite this, on 17 August, Vargas Davis appointed himself editor-in-chief of Radar, N1, Danas and Nova, ousting his predecessors. A bold move, considering that he does not reside in the country. “I think I know where he wants to take the group: a weak voice of dissent, a sham opposition,” says Marija. “They will condemn the government’s unacceptable positions, but only to allow them to claim that a free press exists in Serbia. Investigative journalism, particularly that linked to the political sphere, will be severely weakened. ‘Tabloid’ journalism, if we can call it that.”

Last week, another high-profile figure was sacked: following the channel directors, the presenter of Serbia’s most popular late-night show, Zoran Kesic, announced he was leaving the group. “There are less than two weeks to go until the new season of 24 Minutes (his programme), and no one has ever called me about renewing my contract, which was due to expire,” said Kesić. Ann, whilst expressing her regret, was quick to point out that “the programme was disproportionately expensive compared to the number of minutes Kesić was on air”.

It might seem like a hopeless story, but it isn’t: on the evening of 10 September, Kesić and the local press unions called on the public to attend a special live broadcast in front of Parliament – part late-night show, part protest against the government. The event was a success: tens of thousands of people took to the streets to make it clear that this will not be a one-sided election and media campaign.