Western Balkans: Proposed sale of the ANN to Alpac Capital/European Future Media Investment requires urgent regulatory scrutiny
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), together with the Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI) and Article 19 Europe, today sent a letter to the European Board of Media Services (Media Board). We reiterated serious concerns regarding the proposed sale of the Adria News Network to Alpac Capital/European Future Media Investment and formally requested immediate regulatory scrutiny under applicable European media transparency, competition and media pluralism frameworks.
New evidence reignites concerns over the impact of such a concentration on the internal market and on the editorial independence, which would benefit from an opinion by the Media Board.
Given Alpac Capital’s history of opaque financing and regulatory non-compliance regarding its 2022 acquisition of the Euronews TV channel, which was partially financed by funds linked to the Hungarian state and individuals close to the government of Viktor Orbán, full transparency is urgently needed.
The overall impact on media pluralism, editorial independence, public opinion and the internal market cannot be properly evaluated without full disclosure of the source of the ultimate beneficial ownership and the funding sources behind the offer contained in the Equity Commitment Letter.
Furthermore, substantial redundancy measures were implemented following the Euronews transaction, resulting in the departure of more than half of the staff (175 out of 370), in addition to the relocation of the headquarters from Lyon to Belgium. Amid increased political pressure in the region, recent dismissals – such as those of Katja Šeruga (director and editor-in-chief of N1 Slovenia), Igor Bozic (news editor-in-chief of N1 Serbia) – have sent a worrying signal to media professionals, who have repeatedly expressed fear over the loss of editorial independence and their future in newsrooms. According to available information, Pedro Vargas Santos David, owner of Alpac Capital, has been registered as the new director of companies associated with N1, TV Nova, Nova.rs, Radar and Danas.
Furthermore, Alpac Capital already owns Euronews – which claims to reach a monthly TV audience of 150 million across the EU. Adding ANN’s audiences in the Western Balkans would create an even larger cross-border operation, giving the company significant potential to influence public opinion across the internal market and potentially limit citizens’ access to pluralistic and independent information.
As anticipated in our earlier briefing, the sale of ANN by United Group was only the first step in a broader divestment of media assets. In July, the sale of Nova TV Bulgaria, which was subject of three different bids from Newsmax, Gemcorp and Antenna Group, was confirmed.
The EFJ, on behalf of its members from the region, together with Article 19 Europe and BFMI, today called in a letter on the European Board for Media Services, the European Commission and the competent national regulatory authorities to closely monitor developments within Adria News Network, to assess their potential impact on editorial independence and media pluralism in accordance with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), and ensure rigorous oversight, full transparency ownership disclosure, and binding protections for media freedom.
“Journalists are not assets to be transferred from one owner to another alongside a company, and newsrooms must not become instruments of political or commercial interests. We call on the media board to conduct urgent regulatory scrutiny in order to prevent the detrimental impact of media concentration. We remain at the disposal of the ad hoc expert group to provide any necessary assistance. Media pluralism, editorial independence, and professional media’s labour rights are at stake, ” stated Maja Sever, EFJ President.
More information on this issue can be found in the full statement of our affiliate in Serbia, the Independent Journalists’ Association (NUNS).
