{"id":11510,"date":"2025-08-29T14:02:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=11510"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:02:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:02:25","slug":"serbian-tabloids-misrepresent-occrp-and-krik-findings-in-order-to-defend-vucic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/29\/serbian-tabloids-misrepresent-occrp-and-krik-findings-in-order-to-defend-vucic\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbian Tabloids Misrepresent Occrp and Krik Findings in Order to Defend Vu\u010di\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Original article<\/em><\/a> (in Serbian) was published on 28\/8\/2025; Author: Milica Ljubi\u010di\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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 Lu\u010di\u0107, about replacing Aleksandra Suboti\u0107. 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, Lu\u010di\u0107 told Miller that Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 had personally requested Suboti\u0107\u2019s dismissal. A number of pro-government tabloids in Serbia quickly came to Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s defense, alleging that OCCRP had rejected claims made by N1 and Nova, and maintaining that Vu\u010di\u0107 \u201cdid not demand anyone\u2019s dismissal\u201d. For these claims, they pointed to a sentence in the OCCRP report which said that<\/em> \u201cOCCRP has not seen evidence that Vu\u010di\u0107 had instructed Lu\u010di\u0107 or anyone else to impose changes at N1.\u201d <\/em>Miranda Patruci\u0107, editor-in-chief of the OCCRP, explained to Raskrikavanje that this sentence \u2014 now being used by the tabloids \u2014 was meant to make it clear to readers \u201cthat the part of the information concerning Vu\u010di\u0107 was based on indirect statements.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)<\/a> and Raskrikavanje<\/a> revealed on Wednesday that the director of Telekom Serbia, Vladimir Lu\u010di\u0107, 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 Suboti\u0107, CEO of United Media, which owns several media outlets, including N1. During the conversation, Lu\u010di\u0107 told Miller that Serbian President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 had personally requested Suboti\u0107\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the revelation became public, a number of pro-government tabloids published nearly identical articles focused on defending Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 and accusing N1 and Nova S of misleading the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLying liars: \u0160olak\u2019s media claim Vu\u010di\u0107 ordered the dismissal of the long-time director of United Media, but this document proves everything,\u201d Informer wrote<\/a> Wenesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u0160olak\u2019s media modus operandi of lying: OCCRP says Vu\u010di\u0107 had nothing to do with the dismissals \u2013 They continue their campaign of lies\u201d, Novosti soon published<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same article<\/a> appeared a few minutes later on the website Republika.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOCCRP refuted N1 and Nova: Vu\u010di\u0107 has nothing to do with the dismissals! The blockade media are misleading the public,\u201d was later published<\/a> by Alo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accusations that N1 and Nova S are \u201clying\u201d continued to spread the next day as well, this time in the print editions of Kurir and Srpski telegraf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOCCRP has not seen evidence that Vu\u010di\u0107 had instructed Lu\u010di\u0107 or anyone else to impose changes at N1\u201c, the sentence comes from the OCCRP report and was seized on by pro-government media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCCRP editor-in-chief Miranda Patruci\u0107 told Raskrikavanje that the article stressed there was no evidence Vu\u010di\u0107 had directly instructed Lu\u010di\u0107 or anyone else to impose changes, saying it was important to \u201cmake clear to readers the difference between verified facts and reported claims\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the information we published comes second-hand \u2014 the two of them were speaking about what Vu\u010di\u0107 wanted or expected, but there are no documents or direct testimony showing that he personally gave such an order,\u201d Patruci\u0107 said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted, however, that Vu\u010di\u0107 himself had earlier hinted at changes in the newsroom, \u201cwhich suggest that he could have been aware of or expected certain moves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 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,\u201d Patruci\u0107 concluded in her comments to Raskrikavanje.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suzana Vasiljevi\u0107, the Serbian President\u2019s media adviser, in a brief response to OCCRP<\/a> questions, said that Vu\u010di\u0107 \u201cdid not interfere in the editorial policy of the media, nor was [he] interested in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCCRP and KRIK<\/a> also published<\/a> an audio recording<\/a> and transcript of a conversation between Vladimir Lu\u010di\u0107 and Stan Miller, in which they can be clearly heard discussing the dismissal of Aleksandra Suboti\u0107 and the future of the media outlets owned by United Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the recording, Miller asks Lu\u010di\u0107 for more time to dismiss Suboti\u0107, saying he needs time to weaken United Media in Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Miller is heard telling Lu\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As heard in the audio recording<\/a>, Lu\u010di\u0107 told Miller that Vu\u010di\u0107 had already discussed Suboti\u0107\u2019s dismissal with Nikos Stathopoulos, the chairman of BC Partners, the investment fund that is the majority owner of United Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this is president asked Nikos in a fast way to replace only Aleksandra Suboti\u0107, not the directors of N1 and Nova S. He was aware that it\u2019s difficult now to change the director of N1 without reorganization,\u201d Lu\u010di\u0107 said in the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNikos is a friend of mine. I\u2019ve 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\u2019m going to make them happen as fast as possible, Vlada,\u201d Miller replied, according to the audio recording<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated in English using AI tools, then thoughtfully refined by a human editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Serbian) was published on 28\/8\/2025; Author: Milica Ljubi\u010di\u0107 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 Lu\u010di\u0107, about replacing Aleksandra Suboti\u0107. She has been the director of United Media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-11510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-serbia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11512,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11510\/revisions\/11512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}