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20261102 170000 UTC
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[00:00:27] We come to the editorial office of the Nova S portal while the new owner with
[00:00:30] imposed editors shuts down the print
[00:00:33] edition. At the same time, Brent
[00:00:36] Sadler highlights before the British public the important role of the media and
[00:00:39] the reporting of his network's journalists
[00:00:43] during the election night. Their
[00:00:46] work receives public recognition, but
[00:00:49] also their voice to the house that has gained readers' trust for years
[00:00:53] long before the arrival of the new
[00:00:56] owner. Ratko Femić, from
[00:01:00] Berane, came to study journalism, from
[00:01:04] Danas, awarded investigative texts
[00:01:07] about security services through a new
[00:01:10] magazine, Newsweek and Kurir, to
[00:01:13] Nova, he learned the trade and the cost
[00:01:16] of ownership calculations, when the
[00:01:19] editorial office of the portal was given less than 48 hours to
[00:01:23] decide on leaving with severance pay, those
[00:01:26] colleagues decided to stay and resist.
[00:01:30] With Ratko Femić about his own choices and
[00:01:34] compromises, the responsibility of owners and
[00:01:37] the fight for the editorial office that continues
[00:01:40] to last. See, we are now in
[00:01:43] the hall, yes. In fact, we are still in
[00:01:47] the portal. Well, yes, here on this floor, on this floor is the portal,
[00:01:51] to the right is the portal, here is our conference room.
[00:01:55] And now, for example, today, at this moment, we are using it as, let's
[00:01:58] say, a war room. "Ranko Pivljanin is here, we are writing
[00:02:02] some announcements, we are agreeing on how
[00:02:05] to respond, now this, since we had today
[00:02:09] again some, let's say, indecent offer, not an indecent offer, but
[00:02:12] a decision, uh, the new owners, i.e.
[00:02:16] the representatives of Alpaka Capital, have decided to shut down the Nova
[00:02:19] newspaper, they just told us that, so it's like the decision is
[00:02:23] final and that's it, is there any
[00:02:25] explanation, well they
[00:02:28] uh..." they will, for example, today
[00:02:32] install a new one, even though they said before for example, I don't
[00:02:34] know, not even two months ago, they said that
[00:02:38] Ranko and Draža, i.e. the editors of Danas
[00:02:42] newspaper Nova, would remain in their
[00:02:44] positions, they have been praising
[00:02:48] Ranko's project, i.e. the newspaper
[00:02:51] that Ranko edits, for months, even while I was negotiating
[00:02:54] with uh Pedro Vargas David to
[00:02:58] take over the position of editor-in-chief of the Nova RS portal, he told me
[00:03:02] how Danas and Nova are actually
[00:03:05] some examples of how they are doing well, they are reporting well,
[00:03:09] then they were talking about that, I don't know,
[00:03:13] that newspaper, well, no one there earns a lot, but at least
[00:03:16] they are not, I don't know, in what kind of loss,
[00:03:20] all this was happening less than two months ago, now
[00:03:23] what suddenly changed? Now I wanted to
[00:03:27] say that in that decision, that decision to shut down the print'... was participated in
[00:03:30] by the imposed editor, we said
[00:03:33] the appointed editor Marko Stepanović, a man
[00:03:37] who really marked his career by this
[00:03:40] editing of the regime tabloid, i.e.
[00:03:43] by transforming one informative publication into a
[00:03:46] regime propaganda publication, and they appointed him
[00:03:50] as editor-in-chief, he makes those decisions,
[00:03:53] but he has never appeared here in the editorial office,
[00:03:57] and the representative of Alpaka today spoke about how
[00:04:01] our numbers of visits were excellent and, I don't know, the number of opened
[00:04:05] pages during the election
[00:04:07] night, we explained that it was election night
[00:04:11] that it was simply thanks to the fact that we were, they cut
[00:04:14] our budget for social media, which is another channel for us to
[00:04:18] reach more and more broader audiences, he tried
[00:04:21] to use that as an argument, you see that
[00:04:25] you are doing well even without that, but not
[00:04:28] only because of the election night... that people came to watch
[00:04:32] how we do it, because they trust us, but also because
[00:04:35] they literally tried to change the editorial
[00:04:39] policy of this portal, which we publicly opposed,
[00:04:42] alarmed colleagues, the international public, organized
[00:04:46] two protests, in that way we drew attention to ourselves, so
[00:04:50] our visits increased, so the people who
[00:04:55] app. Find out more at wanted to limit our visibility during election night, that new
[00:04:57] management, actually did... something that no
[00:05:01] marketing team could have done, they increased our visibility, even if they didn't
[00:05:04] want to, and he tried to say: you
[00:05:07] see, you
[00:05:09] are doing well with the new editor whom they
[00:05:13] appointed, and the editorial policy has not
[00:05:16] changed, I can now immodestly say, I told that to
[00:05:19] the gentleman who was there, although he is not responsible for that
[00:05:23] editorial part, he is responsible for finances,
[00:05:26] this, that the new imposed
[00:05:29] editor never appeared, he
[00:05:32] did not step into the editorial office here, he did not make
[00:05:36] a single decision concerning the editorial office or
[00:05:39] editorial policy, he did not lead... the editorial office,
[00:05:42] the editorial office was led by us, the editorial team that
[00:05:45] has been leading it for all these seven years, so those
[00:05:49] numbers and that it is good, I can immodestly
[00:05:53] say, that is our merit and our
[00:05:56] argument is, if something needs to be changed, if we are expensive, if
[00:06:00] we are spending, if some costs need to be reduced, we can
[00:06:04] talk about that, but if something is good, if our readers
[00:06:07] trust us, if our readers come back, if
[00:06:11] Oxford University... and the Reuters Institute for Research for last
[00:06:15] year say that we are second on the list of media
[00:06:18] that citizens trust the most, so we are doing
[00:06:22] a good job regarding the content, why
[00:06:25] change something that is good and destroy its reputation by bringing
[00:06:29] in one uh apologist of the former
[00:06:32] regime, that would certainly destroy the reputation of this
[00:06:35] portal, the results would not be the same
[00:06:38] and with the change of the social climate, you know that we were...
[00:06:42] "we, the media you work for and so on, that we were
[00:06:46] discriminated against regarding advertising, now hopefully
[00:06:49] we will not be discriminated against, we can approach the largest
[00:06:52] companies that can without fear advertise with
[00:06:55] us, so it would be worth it for them to
[00:06:58] keep a portal of this reputation
[00:07:02] that will now be able to get large advertisers, I
[00:07:06] in their this action see no
[00:07:09] economic logic but pure revenge because we..." "did not
[00:07:13] accept the decision of one, let me say, a large corporation, a small
[00:07:17] portal, a small Sparta, and I'm not exaggerating, managed
[00:07:21] to resist a large, a large
[00:07:24] corporate system, now look, now I'm trying to talk to you and think
[00:07:28] about what is it now, is this nothing or is this everything,
[00:07:31] which beginning, which end,
[00:07:35] well, we don't agree that it's the end, we will continue, just now I was with my colleague
[00:07:39] Ranko Pivljanin, we were arranging some next steps regarding
[00:07:43] this latest situation, we simply
[00:07:45] won't reconcile with it, we have set our red lines
[00:07:49] regarding our this, regarding that,
[00:07:52] we offered a compromise,
[00:07:56] we offered an alternative, we gave strong arguments
[00:08:00] as to why we, what I said at the beginning, why we
[00:08:03] think that way, and today at the meeting with the gentleman from
[00:08:07] Alpaka, we said, we asked him
[00:08:10] to reconsider and once again review their decision
[00:08:14] to impose that, let's say, this
[00:08:18] editorial duo close to the former regime, because what do we need
[00:08:22] all the same media for, they bought all the media that continue
[00:08:25] to poison today, we don't want to be some pro-government
[00:08:29] media now, leave us to be as we are, we will give the government 100 days
[00:08:33] and then we will see what that government did wrong, and
[00:08:36] I apologize, is this an exit or an entrance, so what is it, where are
[00:08:40] we? You know, the hardest
[00:08:44] question, are we in some
[00:08:46] limbo or what, we will fight to stay
[00:08:50] here, so that Nova RS does not change its
[00:08:53] DNA, because we are sorry, maybe people understand, I know
[00:08:57] this is not my portal, you know, but I participated from
[00:09:00] the beginning,
[00:09:03] seven years this story has been going on, I've been here from the very beginning, it will be seven
[00:09:07] years in December, I was called
[00:09:10] by the late Veselin Simonović and since then I know how many
[00:09:14] visits we had then, how many we have now and what kind of factor
[00:09:18] we are now for someone to come and because of some
[00:09:21] agreements to destroy all that, and it has
[00:09:25] the potential to maintain its reputation,
[00:09:28] to maintain its reputation, to retain readers and also to
[00:09:32] earn from it, I really don't see this,
[00:09:35] I don't see the reason why someone would do that, and when I ask you how
[00:09:38] then you explain that
[00:09:42] a day after those elections? Not to mention that it
[00:09:45] should be some new management, enlightened or
[00:09:49] unenlightened, but how is it then explained when maybe there are no political
[00:09:53] uh restrictions
[00:09:57] or I don't know, I tell you, I don't uh I don't know why
[00:10:00] they insist so much on that besides all these
[00:10:04] this uh events, our arguments,
[00:10:07] but I have some explanation, you know, if
[00:10:11] I was offered such a lucrative and good
[00:10:15] offer just to lead the portal, I can only imagine what kind of
[00:10:18] offer Marko got, who
[00:10:21] is supposed to lead the entire system and television, he decided to shut down the newspapers
[00:10:25] and the portal, I don't know what else,
[00:10:29] then in some contract, I even
[00:10:33] had that, you have that kind of golden parachute, you know, if
[00:10:36] uh the investor or the one who invited you, the management, if
[00:10:40] they decide to terminate it with you, then they have to pay you, now I don't know
[00:10:44] how much they agreed on, gross salary or some bonuses,
[00:10:47] and I believe that now it would cost Alpaka a lot to
[00:10:51] give up such a man, maybe
[00:10:54] that's... "I don't know, one of the reasons,
[00:10:57] maybe one of the reasons is also the agreement they had,
[00:11:00] the eventual agreement they had with this
[00:11:03] outgoing team, and that agreement certainly
[00:11:07] existed, some things were, let's
[00:11:10] say, there were some confidential meetings, it's not the time to talk
[00:11:14] about that, some things I witnessed
[00:11:18] and saw first-hand, I know
[00:11:21] who influences it and they know that I know.""
[00:11:25] Uh, so
[00:11:29] they are probably trying to, I don't know, to
[00:11:32] justify some agreement or maybe something they
[00:11:36] got, but on the other hand, these are people who, look,
[00:11:39] you, not only you and Ranko, and actually people who have that
[00:11:43] experience, does it now have something to do with that experience we just
[00:11:46] went through, when I just say they just pop
[00:11:50] into my head, how many wait, how many, how many newspapers have you
[00:11:54] worked for? In general, from Danas to
[00:11:58] from Danas to today, I worked in Danas,
[00:12:01] I worked at the beginning, so I was in that group
[00:12:04] of journalists who founded Alo,
[00:12:07] a tabloid that was then a pro-European tabloid, modeled after
[00:12:11] Bild, it was huge, large, owned by
[00:12:14] Ringier, and at that time all tabloids were, let's say, dark,
[00:12:18] black, they had, let's say, that right-wing
[00:12:22] kind of uh story, traditionalist, conservative
[00:12:26] story, we were something completely opposite, for us they
[00:12:29] wrote columns, I don't know, the late Dejan Anastasijević,
[00:12:33] Boris Dežulović wrote, I even think that, I don't know, someone
[00:12:37] mentioned, I already forgot, Dragan Bujošević, I'm not sure, but
[00:12:40] let's say it was a normal tabloid, it doesn't
[00:12:44] resemble this, I can freely say, garbage that they are making
[00:12:47] today, after that I was in Novi Magazin,
[00:12:51] a very respectable and
[00:12:55] serious weekly where I wrote some, mostly analytical
[00:12:58] texts, reports that I can still be
[00:13:02] proud of uh after uh
[00:13:06] that time I worked, I was a columnist for Al Jazeera
[00:13:10] Balkans, this portal, I occasionally
[00:13:13] wrote for Vreme weekly, after
[00:13:17] that I went, I mentioned Newsweek, I stayed in Newsweek
[00:13:21] for about a year, then I was in Kurir
[00:13:24] for some time as editor-in-chief for a few months, after that
[00:13:28] I was editor, deputy editor-in-chief, and then
[00:13:31] editor of video production, there I made two
[00:13:34] shows, one was called "Let's not lie," it's a format of conversations
[00:13:38] with various politicians and political actors, which at that
[00:13:42] time of some, let's say, reconciliation, calming
[00:13:45] things down, was a window uh to the world for
[00:13:48] the then opposition on such media, there were no
[00:13:51] truly relevant opposition figures who were not there. Even
[00:13:55] then, our television television, when it uh
[00:13:58] had some agreement with Kurir, so Kurir
[00:14:02] broadcast that show on our television, and I hosted some
[00:14:05] morning show with them when they, at that time, when they
[00:14:09] were, I don't know, anti-regime, that short time when the
[00:14:12] owner had a falling out, I don't know, with Aleksandar Vučić, that's how it
[00:14:16] happened with those media after
[00:14:19] I had another format there, briefly it was called "Ukratko" (In short), it's
[00:14:23] a kind of vlog, a story of four minutes where I mainly
[00:14:26] commented on some phenomena, but
[00:14:29] why am I asking you now, are these
[00:14:32] people who found themselves on the portal today and who 90%
[00:14:36] 100% supported
[00:14:39] the moment of that
[00:14:42] struggle that seemed impossible
[00:14:46] before the elections, unfortunately, here I see, you mean people who work, who are
[00:14:49] employed, who work, who are employed, is that
[00:14:52] what it means? "Now, what we
[00:14:56] are talking about, your great experience, is it ultimately, perhaps a
[00:14:59] conscious or unconscious choice that you were against something? Well, no, you know what,
[00:15:03] even now, mostly people there
[00:15:06] somewhere identify with me,
[00:15:09] they call me, congratulate me, I don't know, and as long as
[00:15:12] the police don't call, everything is fine. If they do, tell us so we know where
[00:15:16] to go, that this uh, I
[00:15:19] am not, I am not the leader of any rebellion, nor am I any kind of
[00:15:23] leader, I was here in the position" of main deputy and
[00:15:26] responsible editor, and when Mihajlo was removed,
[00:15:30] I was by nature someone who was out front
[00:15:33] and exposed, so maybe I spoke a little more, I am not the editorial board
[00:15:37] of these... 60 people, you saw that through these some
[00:15:40] declarations, what I really, it's me, I knew
[00:15:44] that they are like that, I insisted that the voting be secret,
[00:15:47] but they wanted, we don't want, we all want to
[00:15:51] raise our hands, we want it to be seen, I wanted to
[00:15:54] give a chance to people who are against something, so that we
[00:15:58] can see where we stand in the editorial board, then we will
[00:16:00] talk, we simply had, whenever
[00:16:04] we made decisions, I saw such a determined editorial board.
[00:16:08] action that they are ready to fight and go all the way, then
[00:16:12] where do I get the strength to foam and talk so much about it,
[00:16:15] well, that editorial board pushes me, they give me strength, you understand, you start
[00:16:19] something, first of all this, I'll be honest now
[00:16:23] until the end, let's say when I was offered that position, I was like,
[00:16:26] I don't know if I'm able to accept it, because a person
[00:16:28] has, I don't know, some private
[00:16:32] problems and this and that, and what do I need it for, I knew what would be
[00:16:36] required - when I already got into it, let's see what
[00:16:40] they want from me, and they really didn't ask for any
[00:16:43] texts to be removed or anything, but you see that it's that subtle
[00:16:46] Gleichschaltung, you know, you give it a little spin here and there, why
[00:16:50] that title, it can be different, let's discuss
[00:16:54] about this, give me your assessment about this
[00:16:57] piece, I answered all that nicely until one day Brent Sadler came
[00:17:00] and told me, here's a list of journalists,
[00:17:03] write, I look at journalists from Novosti and from
[00:17:07] Alo, they come for three
[00:17:11] months, then they will go back, Stan, I'm sorry,
[00:17:14] who, who approved that arrangement, who is that man
[00:17:17] above all those editorial boards, who connects us
[00:17:21] and says, you will come here from a regime media to a
[00:17:24] critical and free media, then after
[00:17:27] three months, when these election stories are over, you will return to your
[00:17:31] workplaces in those regime media, who is that
[00:17:34] man who is who has..." that
[00:17:37] influence on Novosti, on Alo, on Nova RS, who
[00:17:41] is above Brent Sadler, Pedro Vargas
[00:17:45] David, since they don't know who those people are, someone who gave them
[00:17:48] that list, Raskrikavanje
[00:17:52] connected these media with Siniša
[00:17:54] Mali,
[00:17:57] and Siniša Mali was in some way behind that story, he is
[00:18:01] not in these papers, but his influence is
[00:18:04] evident, and how such an
[00:18:07] experienced journalist, a war correspondent, you know you are a war
[00:18:11] correspondent, how, how do you bring
[00:18:14] a list and put it in front of a colleague, well everyone has their own
[00:18:18] moment, you know, this, I don't know,
[00:18:21] he talks about that, and even today he talks, he asked us here in
[00:18:25] the editorial office, he asked me, Ratko, do you think I am,
[00:18:29] do you think, I don't know, I am a killer,
[00:18:32] a killer of free media in Serbia, I said without any
[00:18:35] hesitation that...
[00:18:37] "I think, I think he is a killer of free media in
[00:18:41] Serbia, now just today we are doing, maybe we even published
[00:18:44] a text on some podcast, he spoke with
[00:18:48] pride, how it all happened magnificently, what that
[00:18:51] change was like, how he led some independent editorial office
[00:18:55] here, in fact he was trying to soften
[00:18:59] that critical edge of ours in the name of professional
[00:19:03] standards, at least with us, with us it was..."
[00:19:07] evident and I
[00:19:10] could, I don't know, as they say,
[00:19:13] wiggle, we discuss
[00:19:16] about a lot of things and drag it out,
[00:19:19] prolong the situation so that it might last even longer until he came
[00:19:23] directly with that list, and that was really
[00:19:26] something, as they say, the moment where I detonated and where all
[00:19:30] that insecurity I told you about, whether I can do it, whether
[00:19:34] one can take responsibility for all people at any given moment.
[00:19:40] And I said, I, I'm done, I'm going to say this, I promised him I wouldn't
[00:19:43] say it that day because I was full of adrenaline, that I would
[00:19:47] leave some time for him to see what he would do, the next day I
[00:19:50] gathered the team and told them then that evening, before I
[00:19:54] announced it, I crossed myself out, as Major
[00:19:57] Gavrilović said, from the combat strength I reconciled myself with the fact that they
[00:20:00] might cancel me somewhere, I insisted with
[00:20:04] my colleagues, I said I would push this story, I want to
[00:20:08] consult with you, I don't want to put anyone in an awkward position, I won't
[00:20:11] hold anything against anyone, you all need to keep your jobs, especially since
[00:20:15] more than half of the editorial board here works in news and they didn't deal with those
[00:20:19] things, and it would really be useless for people to lose their jobs
[00:20:23] because of all that, but I then when I decided that
[00:20:26] after that, conditionally speaking, let's say death, maybe it sounds
[00:20:30] pathetic in some journalistic sense or in
[00:20:34] the sense of having a job or a secure
[00:20:37] license, when I saw that after that, let's say, there is
[00:20:41] life, there are various options, it doesn't have to be
[00:20:43] journalism, then I decided to go all the way, I got
[00:20:47] the support of the editorial board, we got the support of the public, international
[00:20:51] institutions and
[00:20:54] then there was no turning back because I would rather
[00:20:57] ask you this: an interview with Aleksandar
[00:21:00] Vučić or with Brent Sadler? Ugh,
[00:21:03] difficult question, but I don't shy away, I am not one of
[00:21:07] those who shy away from interviews, I mean, I won't even ask you that, what would I ask
[00:21:11] the first one and what the second one? Well,
[00:21:14] I would ask Aleksandar Vučić, since, well, now,
[00:21:18] since he called me out about
[00:21:20] 10 days ago, because I was a guest on KTV
[00:21:24] television, I said, I didn't say a percentage, but I said,
[00:21:27] if they estimate in the morning hours, in the pre-noon
[00:21:30] hours that uh, that
[00:21:33] the turnout is high, the roads to the airport will be jammed,
[00:21:36] that was more figuratively speaking, like,
[00:21:39] let's say, stylistically, rather than I wanted to
[00:21:43] say that it would then be clear that they
[00:21:46] are falling, then he explained how
[00:21:49] impossible such a turnout is, now I would ask him, well,
[00:21:53] Oscar, what is possible, is it impossible
[00:21:56] now, did you see it going over how much, is it
[00:21:58] 71, almost, I don't know, how much we are dealing with our
[00:22:02] struggle, I didn't manage to get over
[00:22:04] 70, and I would ask Brent Sadler
[00:22:07] who gave him the list
[00:22:11] of journalists from Alo and from
[00:22:14] Alo Novosti, I apologize, I really must, maybe the answers are coming,
[00:22:18] yes, and I would ask... "I would ask him who gave him
[00:22:21] this list of journalists
[00:22:25] from regime media,
[00:22:28] and I would ask him if he knows Siniša
[00:22:32] Mali, I would ask him many questions, let's wait,
[00:22:36] let's wait, we don't get everything in the first week, everyone has a right to 100
[00:22:39] days, if you were
[00:22:40] someone,
[00:22:44] if I were someone, I would be someone.
[00:22:46] Oh,
[00:22:49] but you are someone." because you saw that you've been addressing me formally all this time, now I'm thinking if you're
[00:22:53] doing that because I'm 10 years older than you, no,
[00:22:56] but like, let's say we're on television, so like, this
[00:29:19] powers in Michigan there
[00:29:22] appears. some
[00:29:30] inner democratic party squabbles that are
[00:29:32] ongoing here around the senate candidate Abdullah. There
[00:29:36] was a back and forth over the weekend with Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
[00:29:39] She lost the primary, but she continues to make public her deep misgivings
[00:29:43] about backing him now, citing concerns about his ads and his
[00:29:47] views on Israel. At this point is the Democratic
[00:29:51] Party just too divided to pull off a win in
[00:29:55] Michigan. Is it getting in its own way? No, I
[00:29:58] think no. "I
[00:30:00] think the over, Haley Stevens lost a
[00:30:04] very, very close primary, I can
[00:30:07] understand being upset about that, but I think two
[00:30:10] days before the election, where
[00:30:12] people all over Michigan understand that this
[00:30:16] is the most important mid-term election,
[00:30:19] perhaps in the history of the United States, because we are
[00:30:23] taking on the most dangerous president that we've
[00:30:26] ever had, somebody was an authoritarian does not
[00:30:30] believe. the constitution or the rule of law, who wants to give
[00:30:33] massive tax breaks to billionaires, throw 15
[00:30:37] million people off the healthcare, that they had started in
[00:30:40] illegal, unconstitutional war in ar, so with the people in Michigan
[00:30:44] understand, sure, we have disagreements with Abdul on this and that
[00:30:47] issue, but from what I can see, all over
[00:30:50] the state, people are standing up, they're going to stand with
[00:30:54] Abdul, take on somebody who will be nothing more than...
[00:30:58] somebody who will be nothing more than...