The Dutch media conglomerate United Group has confirmed the authenticity of a recording published by OCCRP and KRIK, which reveals its CEO discussing proposed changes that would weaken one of Serbia’s last remaining independent broadcasters.
In a press release today, United Group said its CEO, Stan Miller had “a business discussion” with Vladimir Lučić, who heads the state-owned Telekom Srbija.
United Group noted that it had sold “various assets” to Telekom Srbija earlier this year.
“Following that transaction, it is both routine and necessary for there to be communication between the companies,” United Group said in its statement.
OCCRP and its Serbian member center, KRIK, reported earlier this week on discussions between Miller and Lučić about plans to weaken United Media, a United Group subsidiary that owns the influential TV broadcaster N1. They discussed removing Aleksandra Subotić as chief executive of United Media.
The conversation took place earlier this month amid ongoing mass protests against the Serbian government, which N1 has covered extensively.
Several pro-government media attacked the report — which was based on inside sources — claiming it was false. However, OCCRP and KRIK obtained an audio recording of the conversation between the CEOs, and published it.
United Group has now confirmed the recording is genuine, but said it is “incomplete and does not reflect the full conversation and context of those discussions.”
“At no time did Telekom Srbija or any other entity or person exert or seek to exert any pressure on United Group concerning the employment of Aleksandra Subotić,” the company added.
However, the audio recording corroborates other evidence that the CEOs discussed ousting Subotić.
“I cannot fire Alexandra today, as we discussed, okay? I need to make that company very small in Serbia, if you understand what I mean, and separate it,” Miller is heard telling Lučić.
The reports by OCCRP and KRIK prompted widespread criticism, including a letter from the International Press Institute (IPI), a media freedom organization that is an investor in BC Partners, which owns the majority of United Group.
United Group’s subsidiary, United Media, “is the last bastion of major independent broadcasting offering a critical view on the government,” IPI said in its letter to BC Partners, which was obtained by OCCRP.
The plan to remove Subotić “is a highly alarming development and suggests direct interference with a political motive,” IPI wrote.
During the recorded conversation, Lučić told Miller that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had asked for Subotić to be replaced.
A spokesperson for Vučić previously told OCCRP and KRIK that the president did not interfere in editorial policy. Lučić denied discussing the removal of Subotić. A spokesperson for BC partners said earlier that “United Media has always and will continue to guarantee the independence of its editorial and news staff.”
United Group said in its statement today that it “does not bow to political influence of any kind.”
Others said the recording did show political interference at work.
“The state-owned company Telekom, which in recent years has been founding and acquiring media outlets, not only actively influences editorial policies of the outlets it owns, but is now also trying to exert influence over the editorial policies of independent newsrooms,” said the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia in a statement.
Traditionally a telecommunications operator, Telekom Srbija’s expansion into media includes the recent purchase United Group’s NetTV Plus, Total TV, and regional sports broadcasting rights in a deal worth more than 650 million euros.
Peter Horrocks, who chairs the One World Media, a non-profit supporting independent journalism, called the recorded conversation between Miller and Lučić “shocking.”
“If you listen to it you will hear media freedom being dismantled in front of you,” he said in a LinkedIn post.
