N1 JOURNALISTS SPEAK OUT ABOUT THEIR DEPARTURE: “We refuse to legitimize authoritarian management!”

Ten journalists from N1 television have notified their employer that they are terminating their employment contracts and have since issued a statement. They resigned on Friday, October 16, blaming executive director of programming at ANN Brent Sadler, N1 news director Branislav Šovljanski and his deputy Vojislav Stevanović, as well as the Alpac Capital fund, for unacceptable changes to the way the newsroom is managed.

They claim that no one in charge has invited them to discuss the matter since September 11, when they raised concerns about newsroom management and the treatment of employees. In the meantime, Šovljanski publicly responded by describing them as a small group of people intent on undermining the newsroom.

We, a group of N1 journalists and editors, have notified our employer that we are terminating our employment contracts.

We are convinced that N1 has been changing in ways we cannot accept since the formation of a new management structure led by Adria News Network (ANN) executive director of programming Brent Sadler, N1 news director Branislav Šovljanski and N1 deputy news director Vojislav Stevanović, and, more recently, under the authority of the Alpac Capital fund.

We have recognized patterns of authoritarian management that we, as journalists, have spent years criticizing, reporting on whenever we encountered them not only in other media outlets but also in society as a whole.

Following our statement of September 11, in which we raised concerns about newsroom management and the treatment of employees, no one in charge invited us to discuss the problems we had identified. Instead of engaging in dialogue, Director Šovljanski publicly accused us of being a “small group of people” who were “undermining the newsroom” and “trying to portray the situation as though there were some kind of censorship in order to leave N1.”

Under the new management, we have witnessed falsehoods, manipulation, insidious censorship, the public discrediting of colleagues, their professional marginalization, insults and humiliation, changes to program editors, and a refusal to engage in open discussions about problems.

While genuine dialogue within the newsroom has been all but eliminated, its appearance is being manufactured on air. We do not want to participate in misleading the audience through simulated debates, forced attempts to portray opposing political actors as equivalent, and the pretense of normality, while ignoring the authorities’ long-standing, well-known treatment of N1 and the broader social and political context in which we live and work.

Precisely because we are approaching the most uncertain elections since N1 television was established, we refuse to legitimize an editorial policy under these conditions when we cannot stand behind it. The new management has narrowed our room for maneuver to such an extent that our staying would have no impact on how the program looks in the coming days.

Waiting for one of the pro-regime journalists or editors to deliver the final blow to N1 would mean denying the fact that Sadler, Šovljanski and Stevanović have already reshaped the way the newsroom operates and its editorial policy.

Professional integrity is demonstrated not only when we demand accountability from others, but also when we are prepared to hold ourselves to the same standards. We cannot criticize silence, conformity and irresponsibility on the part of others while accepting all of these things in our own newsroom in the name of its supposed unity.

We thank the audience for trusting us throughout all these years and hope to meet again soon.

Adam Santovac
Ana Novaković
Danica Vućenić
Dimitrije Đurić
Žaklina Tatalović
Žana Bulajić
Ksenija Pavkov Strika
Mia Bjelogrlić
Sanja Kosović