European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez told N1 that he has never seen the kind of behavior exhibited by the new owner of the Nova.rs news portal.
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“I have been monitoring the behavior of media owners for years all over Europe, and I can tell you that I’ve never seen such behavior from a media owner. I am sure about one fact – what’s happening in Nova today is not in the interest of the company, it’s not logical to act that way. So, when you look at the options, the only option I see is a company, or media owners, acting on behalf, I would say, of the government, in the best interest of those in power today in Serbia,” he said.
He said that Alpac Capital is doing things that are totally against the interest of the company and added that he has not seen “such a harsh capture of a media company” in his 13 years in charge of the EFJ. “It is ruining the reputation of the company, it is putting pressure on the staff, including blackmail. You know, when you ask people to accept a new management and you leave them with 48 hours to decide if they stay or not, if they disagree they can leave – this is blackmail and it’s also a blatant violation of labor law,” he added.
He said Alpac Capital’s actions are totally out of the range of normal behavior of any media owner in Europe and worldwide. “Alpac Capital is showing that they are just acting in the best interest of those in power, not in the best interest of the public, not in the best interest of the audience, not in the best interest of the company,” Gutierrez said.
He said the EFJ will do the utmost to protect these journalists who are doing their job in their full capacity.
“In Serbia we need, more than ever, watchdogs, democratic watchdogs. We need, more than ever, independent journalists, so it’s not just about protecting privileged, for the professionals, for journalists, what we are talking about is the right of citizens in Serbia to access free independent information at a moment when they need it more than ever before. We have very important elections in ten days, and this looks like a capture to avoid people being informed about these elections, about the campaign, but also about the results, about maybe the manipulation of these elections, and maybe about violence following the election,” Gutierrez said.
He pledged that the EFJ will do the utmost from Brussels to support Nova.rs journalists and denounce any attempt to deprive Serbian citizens to access information.
Teme