Weakening or redirecting takeover outlets would sharply narrow the reliable information available to millions of citizens

photo: N1

We, the SEENPM member organisations in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, express deep concern over last week’s Alpac Capital’s takeover of Adria News Network (ANN). Its portfolio includes N1 in four countries; Nova S, Nova.rs, Danas and Radar in Serbia; and the Vijesti group in Montenegro. These are among the region’s few sizeable, independent, professional and non-nationalist news organisations. (In Montenegro, the Commercial Court has temporarily blocked changes in TV Vijesti’s ownership and management pending a shareholder dispute.)

The way control has begun to be exercised intensifies our concern. On 17 August, Alpac Capital chief executive Pedro Vargas Santos David was registered as director of the Serbian companies operating N1, Nova S, Nova.rs, Radar and Danas, replacing their existing directors. Management changes followed at N1 in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina while regulatory approval in Luxembourg was still pending. Their scale and timing inevitably raise questions about editorial independence. N1’s assurance that editorial decisions remain with its newsrooms is welcome, but must be backed by public, enforceable safeguards and independent monitoring.

In Serbia, N1, Nova S and Nova.rs offer a rare alternative to a broadcast and tabloid environment overwhelmingly favourable to the authorities; Danas maintains its professional, anti-war tradition, while Radar provides a home for serious political journalism. Vijesti is a central pillar of watchdog journalism in Montenegro. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, N1 is one of the few major newsrooms addressing the country as a whole and sustaining a shared information space across ethnic and entity divides. In Croatia and Slovenia, N1 is a key source of hard news, probing interviews and critical political debate. Weakening or redirecting these outlets would sharply narrow the reliable information available to millions of citizens.

Concern also arises from the buyer’s existing media interests. Alpac Capital already controls Euronews. Investigations found that its 2022 acquisition was financed in part by Hungarian state-linked sources and business networks associated with Viktor Orbán. During Hungary’s 2026 election campaign, a senior Euronews journalist alleged editorial interference after an article about Orbán-linked companies was removed; Euronews denied political influence. Such allegations make full transparency about the acquisition’s financing details indispensable.

The combination of Euronews and ANN raises a wider issue of national and cross-border media concentration. A single owner would control a major pan-European broadcaster and influential news outlets across five countries, including EU members Croatia and Slovenia and three EU candidate countries. This is a European issue, not merely a series of national transactions. The European Media Freedom Act requires an assessment of media concentrations that is distinct from ordinary competition review and gives the European Board for Media Services a role where a concentration may affect the internal market. That assessment must examine the consequences for media pluralism, editorial independence, the formation of public opinion and the diversity of the media offering. We welcome the European Commission’s confirmation that the Board is forming an ad hoc expert group to examine whether the case falls within its remit.

In the meantime, Serbia’s Information Minister Boris Bratina has urged in a letter Alpac Capital’s Pedro Vargas David to register N1 and Nova S with Serbia’s Regulatory Authority of Electronic Media (REM), explicitly citing Euronews Serbia as the model, while at the same time attacking the existing editorial line of N1 and Nova. The intervention is especially concerning given Alpac’s political connections: Vargas David’s father, Mário David, a long-time adviser to Viktor Orbán, has been publicly described by President Aleksandar Vučić himself as a friend. Taken together, Bratina’s praise for the takeover, his invitation to bring the channels under Serbian regulatory supervision, and the pre-existing relationship between the Vučić circle and the Vargas family reinforce fears that the change of ownership could be used to weaken or tame N1, Nova, and Danas ahead of an expected early election in the coming months that the Vučić regime regards as existential.

We call on Alpac Capital and European Future Media Investments to disclose all investors and financing sources; publish the safeguards for editorial independence; explain the management changes already made; refrain from further structural or editorial changes until regulatory review is complete; disclose any restructuring or redundancy plans; and guarantee jobs, newsroom resources, editorial autonomy and fair distribution.

We call on the Luxembourg authorities, the European Board for Media Services, the European Commission and relevant national regulators to conduct and publish rigorous pluralism assessments and attach binding safeguards to any approval. EU institutions should also answer publicly questions about reported meetings between Alpac’s chief executive, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Council President at which the acquisition was reportedly discussed.

We welcome the decision of the Commercial Court of Montenegro, which, at the request of the founders and minority shareholders of Televizija Vijesti, temporarily blocked changes to the ownership structure and the takeover of the television station by a company owned by the Alpac Capital fund, thereby helping preserve the influential media outlet’s existing editorial policy.

SEENPM and its members stand in full solidarity with the journalists, editors and other staff of all affected outlets. Their work created the public value these media possess. That value must not be diminished, redirected or silenced by a change of ownership.