Commenting on the attempted editorial restructuring at the Nova news portal, Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) President Zeljko Bodrozic said that the move is designed to ensure there is no free media coverage on the October 25 election day, adding that the haste to push through these changes suggests there is “great anxiety” within the ruling establishment, which wants to eliminate any dissenting voices on election night.
Oglas
“In my opinion, the objective is obvious: to ensure that during the day and especially on the evening of October 25, there isn’t a single free traditional media outlet reporting on the election results and ongoing developments, leaving Serbia completely reliant on social media. Even that is uncertain, because we increasingly resemble Turkey, and we could also see internet access compromised during the night,” Bodrozic told Nova daily.
The NUNS president described the attempts by the new management of Adria News Network (ANN) to appoint Marko Stjepanovic and Ivana Mastilovic Jasnic to editorial positions at Nova - which is owned by the company - as predictable, noting that the new owners, “under pressure from the Serbian government, were expected to begin aligning their outlets with regime media.”
“The people chosen for this task are those who turned Blic into a shell of its former self, essentially rendering both the Blic newspaper and portal useless to serve the interests of the authorities. Based on that ‘success,’ they were clearly brought in to do the exact same thing to the Nova.rs portal,” Bodrozic said.
He noted that the solidarity of the newsroom changes the dynamic, emphasizing that the editorial staff has the right - both under local law and the European Media Freedom Act - to protect its editorial autonomy. As long as they stand together, they can defend themselves against “ownership attacks” with the full backing of NUNS and other journalistic and media organizations, Bodrozic added.
Teme