Purchase of Serbian newspapers by Portuguese fund concerns MEPs

ANDmEPs today warned that the last independent media in Serbia may be threatened after being acquired by the Portuguese investment fund Alpac Capital on the eve of the early parliamentary elections in this Balkan country.

The means N1, Nova, Danas and Radar “are the last major independent essays” in Serbia, state in a statement Sandro Gozi (Renew Europe and Secretary General of the European Democratic Party), and Vladimir Prebilic (Verdes).

Former Serbian Head of State Aleksandar Vucic resigned in September to run for Prime Minister in the legislative elections on October 25, which were anticipated in more than a year, after nearly two years of massive protests against the government.

“ Over the years, Vucic has built an information system in which almost all national televisions speak with the voice of power, while independent journalists are defamed, pressured and isolated,” said Sandro Gozi, quoted in the statement.

The liberal MEP denounced the departure of 10 journalists in a single day of the N1, “directors replaced before authorisation and in revolt” and “precisely when the Serbs prepare to vote”.

Gozi asked: “Whoever is behind this operation, the question is simple: Who cares? The chosen moment speaks for itself”.

“What is at stake is not a commercial business. It is to know whether Serbia concludes its authoritarian turn: free elections only on paper and a media system entirely under government control,” he said, stressing that a candidate country for EU membership “cannot follow this path and hope that Europe will look the other way.”.

Vladimir Prebilic, member of the EU-Serbia Parliamentary Stabilisation and Association Committee, stressed that the European Parliament has seen “the space of independent journalism shrink year after year”.

“ When the independent media of a candidate country are emptied on the eve of an election, the credibility of the whole enlargement process is at stake. The EU has the instruments from the European Regulation on the Freedom of the Media to the accession negotiations,” he said. “Now you have to use them.”.

In the statement, they recall that international observers, including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR), “have repeatedly documented the rule of authorities and the ruling party over Serbia’s national media,” and the European Commission has classified “political and economic influence on Serbian media as a cause for serious concern.”.

In this regard, the two MEPs launched three initiatives on the acquisition of Adria News Network (ANN) by the European Future Media Investments linked to Alpac Capital, immediately questioning the European Commission about the weight these developments will have in Serbia's accession negotiations.

They also sent a letter to the Luxembourg Government, where the acquired companies and the buyer are based, asking for “total clarity on the timing, financing and guarantees of editorial independence”, as well as Amma Asante, chairman of the European Committee on Media Services, whose group of experts is examining the case, in which they stress that the business is covered by the European Regulation on Freedom of the Media.

Last April, Alpac Capital was also involved in another controversy in Hungary, where it holds the Euronews online medium.

Less than two weeks from the legislative elections that would eventually dictate the end of 16 years of power of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a journalist from Euronews in Hungary denounced the withdrawal of news about companies of elements close to the then Hungarian Prime Minister, in the context of threats to press freedom.

The journalist described the withdrawal of the report as a “clear violation of editorial integrity” and suggested that it could indict undue influence on the content of Euronews.