Original article (in Serbian) was published on 28/8/2025; Author: Milica Ljubičić
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and KRIK have revealed that the new CEO of United Group, Stan Miller, held talks with the head of the state-owned Telekom, Vladimir Lučić, about replacing Aleksandra Subotić. She has been the director of United Media for many years, a company under which several critical media outlets operate, including the television channel N1. According to an audio recording of their conversation published yesterday by OCCRP and KRIK, Lučić told Miller that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had personally requested Subotić’s dismissal. A number of pro-government tabloids in Serbia quickly came to Vučić’s defense, alleging that OCCRP had rejected claims made by N1 and Nova, and maintaining that Vučić “did not demand anyone’s dismissal”. For these claims, they pointed to a sentence in the OCCRP report which said that “OCCRP has not seen evidence that Vučić had instructed Lučić or anyone else to impose changes at N1.” Miranda Patrucić, editor-in-chief of the OCCRP, explained to Raskrikavanje that this sentence — now being used by the tabloids — was meant to make it clear to readers “that the part of the information concerning Vučić was based on indirect statements.”
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Raskrikavanje revealed on Wednesday that the director of Telekom Serbia, Vladimir Lučić, held talks with the new CEO of United Group, Stan Miller, about the future of the media outlets owned by the company. The central topic of their conversation was the dismissal of Aleksandra Subotić, CEO of United Media, which owns several media outlets, including N1. During the conversation, Lučić told Miller that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had personally requested Subotić’s removal.
Shortly after the revelation became public, a number of pro-government tabloids published nearly identical articles focused on defending Aleksandar Vučić and accusing N1 and Nova S of misleading the public.
“Lying liars: Šolak’s media claim Vučić ordered the dismissal of the long-time director of United Media, but this document proves everything,” Informer wrote Wenesday morning.
“Šolak’s media modus operandi of lying: OCCRP says Vučić had nothing to do with the dismissals – They continue their campaign of lies”, Novosti soon published.
The same article appeared a few minutes later on the website Republika.
“OCCRP refuted N1 and Nova: Vučić has nothing to do with the dismissals! The blockade media are misleading the public,” was later published by Alo.
Accusations that N1 and Nova S are “lying” continued to spread the next day as well, this time in the print editions of Kurir and Srpski telegraf.
The tabloids based these accusations on a single sentence from the OCCRP report, while ignoring both the content of the entire article and the context of the sentence itself.
“OCCRP has not seen evidence that Vučić had instructed Lučić or anyone else to impose changes at N1“, the sentence comes from the OCCRP report and was seized on by pro-government media.
OCCRP editor-in-chief Miranda Patrucić told Raskrikavanje that the article stressed there was no evidence Vučić had directly instructed Lučić or anyone else to impose changes, saying it was important to “make clear to readers the difference between verified facts and reported claims”.
“Some of the information we published comes second-hand — the two of them were speaking about what Vučić wanted or expected, but there are no documents or direct testimony showing that he personally gave such an order,” Patrucić said.
She noted, however, that Vučić himself had earlier hinted at changes in the newsroom, “which suggest that he could have been aware of or expected certain moves.”
“In this way, the article remained professional and precise, giving readers insight into the context, while making it clear that part of the information was based on indirect statements,” Patrucić concluded in her comments to Raskrikavanje.
Suzana Vasiljević, the Serbian President’s media adviser, in a brief response to OCCRP questions, said that Vučić “did not interfere in the editorial policy of the media, nor was [he] interested in it.”
OCCRP and KRIK also published an audio recording and transcript of a conversation between Vladimir Lučić and Stan Miller, in which they can be clearly heard discussing the dismissal of Aleksandra Subotić and the future of the media outlets owned by United Group.
In the recording, Miller asks Lučić for more time to dismiss Subotić, saying he needs time to weaken United Media in Serbia.
“I cannot fire Alexandra today, as we discussed, okay? I need to make that company very small in Serbia, if you understand what I mean, and separate it,” Miller is heard telling Lučić.
As heard in the audio recording, Lučić told Miller that Vučić had already discussed Subotić’s dismissal with Nikos Stathopoulos, the chairman of BC Partners, the investment fund that is the majority owner of United Group.
So, this is president asked Nikos in a fast way to replace only Aleksandra Subotić, not the directors of N1 and Nova S. He was aware that it’s difficult now to change the director of N1 without reorganization,” Lučić said in the conversation.
“Nikos is a friend of mine. I’ve known him for a long time. But at the end of the day, I run the fucking company and I love Nikos. He is very dear. He’s a good friend of mine. I know the family, everything. On the other hand, I need to make things happen and I’m going to make them happen as fast as possible, Vlada,” Miller replied, according to the audio recording.
Translated in English using AI tools, then thoughtfully refined by a human editor.
