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“I am warning you that under the (...) Criminal Procedure Code, you may be fined up to 150,000 dinars, and if you continue to refuse to provide the requested information, you may be fined again in the same amount,” prosecutor Aleksandar Milošević wrote in a letter sent to KRIK this week. The fine of 150,000 dinars is equivalent to about $1,476.
The Higher Prosecutor’s Office, where Milošević works, is conducting an investigation that KRIK suspects is aimed at identifying the source of the recording that KRIK and the OCCRP network published two months ago.
In its latest letter to KRIK, the prosecutor’s office claims the recording is needed for forensic examination and insists it is not asking the newsroom to reveal its source, only to provide the recording itself — either the original, its “closest copy,” or the device on which it was recorded. The letter again threatens journalists with a fine if they fail to comply.
This new demand follows KRIK’s earlier response in mid-October, when the newsroom explained that handing over the material would endanger the legally protected right of journalists to safeguard their sources. KRIK also noted that the recording is already publicly accessible on its YouTube channel.
KRIK editor Stevan Dojčinović said at the time that the prosecution’s real goal was not to verify the recording but to uncover the source who provided it, rather than to investigate possible criminal offenses stemming from the conversation between Miler and Lučić.
Neither Lučić nor Miler has disputed the recording’s authenticity, and United Group confirmed that the conversation took place.
Nevertheless, the prosecutor’s office continues to demand that KRIK hand over the material in order to “verify its authenticity.” It says it is acting upon a criminal complaint filed by United Group RS — now headed by Vladica Tintor — against several unidentified individuals.
The recording, published by KRIK and the OCCRP network at the end of August 2024, features Lučić — a close associate of President Aleksandar Vučić — saying that Vučić had demanded the dismissal of Aleksandra Subotić, then director of United Media, which operates the outlets N1, Nova S, Danas, and Radar.
In the conversation, Miler agrees that he cannot immediately fire Subotić but says he must “make that company very small in Serbia.”
The story was later cited in the European Parliament’s Resolution on Serbia as evidence of growing pressure on independent media.
“The Serbian government appears to be negotiating with the owners of United Media in order to ‘weaken’ the independent media operating under its umbrella. We warn that, if confirmed, this would represent a serious attack on the already threatened media pluralism in Serbia,” the draft resolution states.
