Trade unions of Nova.rs, Radar, N1 and Forbes: We will not accept journalism being anyone's prey

The union of portals and newspapers Nova and weekly Radar and the union of N1 and Forbes condemned today the way in which the Portuguese company "Alpak Capital" is taking over these and other media outlets in Serbia that operate within the "Adria News Network" group, which is still part of the "United Group".

As the unions stated in a joint statement, today the owner of the Portuguese company, Pedro Vargas Santos David, was registered at his own request with the Business Registers Agency (APR) as the director of all media outlets in the group - N1, TV Nova, Nova.rs, Radar and Danas.

"This was done in the middle of the summer holidays, without any notification to employees, which caused even greater concern. Of particular concern is the fact that Pedro Vargas was registered as the new director, while the owner is still the company United Fiber Sarl, which operates or operated within the United Group," the statement said.

According to the union's assessment, it can be concluded that the Portuguese company is in a hurry to take over N1, Nova, Danas and Radar as soon as possible, without first obtaining all the necessary permits and approvals from the competent institutions, so with the support of "BC Partners", co-owner of the "United Group", it has begun replacing top people in the editorial team.

"Journalists from our media suspect that things will not stop here, and that the replacement of editors will continue, with the intention of aligning the remaining independent and professional media in accordance with the wishes of the current regime," the statement reads.

The editorial staff's position, they added, is clear - changes in top positions and ownership structure will not affect editorial policy, their professional attitude towards journalism, and integrity - as long as the editorial staff continues to operate with the current composition.

"The fact is that no move made by the Adria News Network management so far inspires confidence that these are good intentions. Therefore, we are sending a message to the new owner and management that the media is not just a business, they are primarily responsible to the public and the public interest, and only then to the ownership structures. And it is the public that will be the judge," they added.

They claim that for the sake of that public, they have fought all these years to work independently, professionally, in accordance with the highest principles of the profession.

"We have resisted all pressures, attacks, verbal and physical, and we will continue to resist. Therefore, we demand from the new director an urgent meeting with representatives of representative unions and written guarantees that editorial policy and the positions of editors and journalists will not be affected," the unions of these media outlets said in a joint statement.