ANEM warns of Alo and Novosti journalists coming to Nova.rs

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) warned on October 4 about moves by the management of Adria News Network (ANN), the company that runs the Nova.rs portal. According to the statement, management, “as the employees said, announced the names of journalists from regime media such as Alo and Vecernje Novosti whom it would hire for three months.” ANEM does not say how many journalists are involved.

What do the Nova.rs employees say?

The same claim comes from a statement signed by members of the newsroom. According to Danas, ANN management gave the full names of the journalists it would bring to the portal to deputy editor-in-chief Ratko Femic, who has run the newsroom since Mihailo Jovicevic left. The newsroom’s statement reads: “These are journalists who come from pro-regime media, such as Alo and Novosti.”

The newsroom also distanced itself from the decision on political advertising on the portal. In its words, prices for participants in the upcoming parliamentary elections were set so high that only the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) could pay them. The employees therefore voice a suspicion that they also put in their statement:

We suspect they were set so high in order to surround our content with SNS ads from every side during the campaign. We want to clearly distance ourselves from such a decision.

Danas adds that the newsroom’s position is that political parties should not buy advertising during the pre-election campaign, because the platform could be abused for political purposes in those circumstances.

The budget, the contract and earlier moves by management

ANEM says the portal’s budget for marketing campaigns on social networks and Google has been cut, which in its assessment directly reduces the reach of its articles. The statement says the plan to bring in journalists from other newsrooms was preceded by a series of similar steps by management that, according to the employees, affected the newsroom’s work.

The association also recalls Jovicevic’s departure. The new management, led by Pedro Vargas Santos David together with Brent Sadler, ANN’s executive program director, ended his contract by mutual agreement while he was director of United Media Digital and editor-in-chief of Nova.rs. According to the employees’ claims that ANEM relays, the portal was then recording its highest traffic. Danas, unlike ANEM, writes about the replacement of the editor-in-chief, not about a mutual termination.

ANEM calls it unacceptable that Sadler, who promised employees support for independent journalism, arrives with the full names of journalists from media close to the authorities and the SNS. It also recalls that it has warned the domestic and international public several times that the sale of ANN to Alpac Capital could be a direct threat to media freedom in Serbia and the Western Balkans.

What does Veran Matic say?

In a written statement, ANEM Board Chair Veran Matic says the media community must not stay silent:

Our media community must not remain silent in the face of efforts to pressure these media into changing their editorial policy through a change in staffing. Such efforts further shrink the space for professional and critical reporting in the public interest.

According to Matic, alongside numerous attacks on local media and journalists, daily threats, economic exhaustion and attempts to change editorial policy, the authorities are seeking total control over the media through the new owner and management. “We must not allow the citizens of Serbia to be left without objective information and the views of a critical public, especially ahead of the parliamentary elections,” Matic warned.

ANEM expressed its support to the Nova.rs newsroom, and also to the newsrooms of N1, Danas and the weekly Radar.

Has ANN responded?

Danas reports that ANN had not responded to the newsroom’s statement by the time its article was published. The same outlet notes that the newspaper Danas and the danas.rs portal are part of ANN. The material available to the newsroom contains neither a response from management to ANEM’s claims nor confirmation of the names of the journalists who would come from other media.