Euronews sells its brand to questionable state-controlled partner in Serbia

This week saw the launch of Euronews Serbia. Part of the Euronews group, which is based in Lyon and claims to bring the “European perspective to more than 400 million homes in 160 countries”, the new broadcaster will begin airing programmes in Serbia later this month.

You might think that one of Europe’s most established television networks opening in Serbia – a place where media pluralism is under threat – is cause for celebration.

The reality is quite different.

Euronews’ partner in Serbia is the state-owned company Telekom Srbija. The country’s main telecoms company, Telekom Srbija is now well-established as a vehicle for President Aleksandar Vučić to further tighten his grip on the media in Serbia.

Most recently, this has been seen in an attempt to drive out one of the last remaining independent media organisations in Serbia, N1.

Leaked internal documents showed that Telekom Srbija had entered into a secret network access agreement with Telenor CEE in order to drive down the market share of rival cable provider SBB, which broadcasts N1.

The documents revealed that the agreement’s goal is to “destroy SBB”. As far as I can tell, Telekom Srbija has never denied this claim.  

Recent years have also seen Telekom Srbija pay over market price for media entities owned by allies of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, who then used the money to buy up outlets critical of the government, in effect passing them under state control. This included the tabloid Kurir, which has one of the widest circulations in Serbia.

Already, ties between Euronews with Serbia’s increasingly authoritarian government are clear. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić is quoted extensively in the press statement announcing the launch. She talks of the “opportunity great opportunity to introduce Serbia to other European countries” and of improved press standards.

“This means more media pluralism for Serbia, respecting the highest professional standards, primarily objectivity and impartiality, but also less sensationalism, and more proven, accurate and complete information,” she said.  

These are nothing but empty words, which Euronews would question rather than support if it was genuinely committed to strong journalistic principles and standards. 

This is not the first time Euronews has shown it is happy to partner with sinister authority figures in the Balkans.

Last month, Euronews announced it was launching a similar channel in Bulgaria in partnership with Bulgarian outfit TV Europa.

The news saw a petition launched in protest of TV Europa’s owner, the arms dealer Dobrin Ivanov.  

The petition highlights that Dobrin was revealed to have received large sums money from an offshore company linked to the notorious money laundering scheme uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer who later died in a Moscow prison after being refused medical treatment.

And that Ivanov is viewed as a proxy for Delyan Peevski, an oligarch and media mogul considered to be at the heart of allegations of corruption and attacks on media freedom from the Bulgarian authorities.

The fact that Euronews is partnering with companies such as Telekom Srbija and TV Europa is anything but a victory for media pluralism.