Just an hour and a half after the N1 newsroom announced that our media outlet would not host Aleksandar Vucic during the campaign presentation of electoral lists, both Vucic and the Serbian Parliament speaker and Acting President of Serbia, Ana Brnabic, reacted. They accused our newsroom of making a “fascist” decision.
Oglas
The first reaction came from Aleksandar Vucic, who continued to insult N1 journalists, labeling the newsroom’s decision fascist.
During Vucic’s appearance on the Cacak-based TV station Lav, an audio recording was broadcast featuring a phone call between the head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) public relations office, Vladanka Malovic, and N1 News Director Branislav Sovljanski. The conversation was recorded without Sovljanski’s knowledge or consent.
Ana Brnabic, deputy head of the Serbian Progressive Party’s Main Board, went a step further during a special press conference she convened outside the Serbian Parliament building.
She defended every single label that Vucic, other government officials, and she personally have slapped on our television network and journalists over the years. Furthermore, she compared our refusal to host Vucic to the era of Nazism and the Ustashe regime. However, Brnabic added that despite everything, it has still not been decided whether government representatives will send an alternative candidate from the “United Serbia - Aleksandar Vucic” list to appear on N1.
By way of background, N1 Television invited the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to participate in a timeslot dedicated to presenting electoral lists.
The SNS campaign headquarters informed us that Aleksandar Vucic would be the one representing the electoral list “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” on our program this Wednesday.
Because Aleksandar Vucic has repeatedly refused to appear on N1 TV for years, while simultaneously insulting us throughout all these years — calling us scum, terrorists, and foreign mercenaries, and degrading us in every other way without mincing words, even accusing us of inciting violence and undermining the state — the N1 newsroom has refused to let him be the one to represent the list.
The SNS has been invited to send a different representative to fill the timeslot allocated for the presentation of their list.
“We are always prepared to interview Aleksandar Vucic, but only after the October 25 elections, when we determine the timing is right and that there is a proper reason for him to appear as a guest on our program,” said the announcement signed by the N1 newsroom.
During the press conference, Ana Brnabic claimed that “we have witnessed something that has not been seen or heard on the European continent since the 1930s.”
“A time of Nazism, total dehumanization, an era when people were prevented from speaking, and ultimately, from existing,” Brnabic said.
She added: “To you at N1, Aleksandar Vucic is what the Jews were in Nazi Germany, what the Serbs were in the Ustasha Independent State of Croatia (NDH).”
However, when asked by a reporter about the next steps for the “United Serbia - Aleksandar Vucic” list, specifically whether government representatives would send someone else to N1, Brnabic replied that a decision had not yet been made and that they would hold a meeting to discuss the matter.
Teme