BELGRADE – Igor Božić, who served as chief-editor of N1 television, has been removed from this position, and the management has barred him from performing any editorial or managerial duties. He has advised not to come to work until further notice, and his position within the company remains uncertain.
The new N1 board is reviewing his previous employment contracts and will consider what role, if any, will be offered to him. This means that Božić has practically been prohibited from working at N1 in any capacity except for tasks assigned by the new management.
Employees of N1 TV gathered Monday evening outside the media company’s building following the dismissal of director Božić, sending a message to the new management that they will continue to assemble until they receive concrete, written guarantees that there will be no drastic changes to editorial policy.
“No one has officially come to us and explained why Igor Božić is no longer director. No one has explained what this means for the future work of the newsroom or who is no managing the newsroom at the level previously overseen by Igor Božić”, Mladen Savatović N1 journalist said. He stressed that N1 employees have no guarantees that the editorial policy will remain unchanged.
Tamara Filipović from Independent Association of Journalists of Serbian (NUNS) said that what is happening at N1 “looks like the beginning of the plan we heard about in conversations between Stan Miller and Telekom CEO Vladimir Lučić”, and added tha this was why any were concerned.
On Friday, Brent Sadler, a former CNN journalist from the United Kingdom, has been registered as the new director in the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR). He has also been listed as a co-director of the Nova.rs portal and Danas.
United Group, a multinational media conglomerate which owns some of the last major media outlets in Serbia that are not under the influence of the government, stated on 19 February that it was reorganising its media operations, placing most of its Balkan media outlets under the newly-founded Adria News Network (ANN). Most of these outlets previously operated under the United Media, whose director, Aleksandra Subotić, has been dismissed.
Serbian televisions N1 and Nova S, daily Danas and weekly Radar, among others, are now operating under the new board of the ANN and the chief news executive, Brent Sadler. These media outlets have provided the bulk of reporting critical of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party in recent years, and have thus been under consistent attacks by the highest state officials and pro-government media.
The announcement has raised concerns in the Serbian public, which has, for a long time, suspected that the Serbian government had made a deal with the majority owner of the United Group, BC Partners, to curtail the critical reporting of these media outlets. Both Serbian officials and BC Partners have denied these speculations.
Media outlets owned by United Group were not sold to any other company, as is now falsely claimed by pro-government outlets in Serbia. However, in June 2025, Dragan Šolak and his associate were dismissed from their positions within the United Group by the decision of the majority owner, BC Partners.
This step has raised concerns that the Serbian government is having behind-the-scenes deals with BC Partners over the future of the media outlets. These speculations were only intensified after the leaked recording of the Miller-Lučić call was released in August.
