Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:27We come to the editorial office of the Nova S portal while the new owner with
00:00:30imposed editors shuts down the print
00:00:33edition. At the same time, Brent
00:00:36Sadler highlights before the British public the important role of the media and
00:00:39the reporting of his network's journalists
00:00:43during the election night. Their
00:00:46work receives public recognition, but
00:00:49also their voice to the house that has gained readers' trust for years
00:00:53long before the arrival of the new
00:00:56owner. Ratko Femić, from
00:01:00Berane, came to study journalism, from
00:01:04Danas, awarded investigative texts
00:01:07about security services through a new
00:01:10magazine, Newsweek and Kurir, to
00:01:13Nova, he learned the trade and the cost
00:01:16of ownership calculations, when the
00:01:19editorial office of the portal was given less than 48 hours to
00:01:23decide on leaving with severance pay, those
00:01:26colleagues decided to stay and resist.
00:01:30With Ratko Femić about his own choices and
00:01:34compromises, the responsibility of owners and
00:01:37the fight for the editorial office that continues
00:01:40to last. See, we are now in
00:01:43the hall, yes. In fact, we are still in
00:01:47the portal. Well, yes, here on this floor, on this floor is the portal,
00:01:51to the right is the portal, here is our conference room.
00:01:55And now, for example, today, at this moment, we are using it as, let's
00:01:58say, a war room. "Ranko Pivljanin is here, we are writing
00:02:02some announcements, we are agreeing on how
00:02:05to respond, now this, since we had today
00:02:09again some, let's say, indecent offer, not an indecent offer, but
00:02:12a decision, uh, the new owners, i.e.
00:02:16the representatives of Alpaka Capital, have decided to shut down the Nova
00:02:19newspaper, they just told us that, so it's like the decision is
00:02:23final and that's it, is there any
00:02:25explanation, well they
00:02:28uh..." they will, for example, today
00:02:32install a new one, even though they said before for example, I don't
00:02:34know, not even two months ago, they said that
00:02:38Ranko and Draža, i.e. the editors of Danas
00:02:42newspaper Nova, would remain in their
00:02:44positions, they have been praising
00:02:48Ranko's project, i.e. the newspaper
00:02:51that Ranko edits, for months, even while I was negotiating
00:02:54with uh Pedro Vargas David to
00:02:58take over the position of editor-in-chief of the Nova RS portal, he told me
00:03:02how Danas and Nova are actually
00:03:05some examples of how they are doing well, they are reporting well,
00:03:09then they were talking about that, I don't know,
00:03:13that newspaper, well, no one there earns a lot, but at least
00:03:16they are not, I don't know, in what kind of loss,
00:03:20all this was happening less than two months ago, now
00:03:23what suddenly changed? Now I wanted to
00:03:27say that in that decision, that decision to shut down the print'... was participated in
00:03:30by the imposed editor, we said
00:03:33the appointed editor Marko Stepanović, a man
00:03:37who really marked his career by this
00:03:40editing of the regime tabloid, i.e.
00:03:43by transforming one informative publication into a
00:03:46regime propaganda publication, and they appointed him
00:03:50as editor-in-chief, he makes those decisions,
00:03:53but he has never appeared here in the editorial office,
00:03:57and the representative of Alpaka today spoke about how
00:04:01our numbers of visits were excellent and, I don't know, the number of opened
00:04:05pages during the election
00:04:07night, we explained that it was election night
00:04:11that it was simply thanks to the fact that we were, they cut
00:04:14our budget for social media, which is another channel for us to
00:04:18reach more and more broader audiences, he tried
00:04:21to use that as an argument, you see that
00:04:25you are doing well even without that, but not
00:04:28only because of the election night... that people came to watch
00:04:32how we do it, because they trust us, but also because
00:04:35they literally tried to change the editorial
00:04:39policy of this portal, which we publicly opposed,
00:04:42alarmed colleagues, the international public, organized
00:04:46two protests, in that way we drew attention to ourselves, so
00:04:50our visits increased, so the people who
00:04:55app. Find out more at wanted to limit our visibility during election night, that new
00:04:57management, actually did... something that no
00:05:01marketing team could have done, they increased our visibility, even if they didn't
00:05:04want to, and he tried to say: you
00:05:07see, you
00:05:09are doing well with the new editor whom they
00:05:13appointed, and the editorial policy has not
00:05:16changed, I can now immodestly say, I told that to
00:05:19the gentleman who was there, although he is not responsible for that
00:05:23editorial part, he is responsible for finances,
00:05:26this, that the new imposed
00:05:29editor never appeared, he
00:05:32did not step into the editorial office here, he did not make
00:05:36a single decision concerning the editorial office or
00:05:39editorial policy, he did not lead... the editorial office,
00:05:42the editorial office was led by us, the editorial team that
00:05:45has been leading it for all these seven years, so those
00:05:49numbers and that it is good, I can immodestly
00:05:53say, that is our merit and our
00:05:56argument is, if something needs to be changed, if we are expensive, if
00:06:00we are spending, if some costs need to be reduced, we can
00:06:04talk about that, but if something is good, if our readers
00:06:07trust us, if our readers come back, if
00:06:11Oxford University... and the Reuters Institute for Research for last
00:06:15year say that we are second on the list of media
00:06:18that citizens trust the most, so we are doing
00:06:22a good job regarding the content, why
00:06:25change something that is good and destroy its reputation by bringing
00:06:29in one uh apologist of the former
00:06:32regime, that would certainly destroy the reputation of this
00:06:35portal, the results would not be the same
00:06:38and 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
00:06:46discriminated against regarding advertising, now hopefully
00:06:49we will not be discriminated against, we can approach the largest
00:06:52companies that can without fear advertise with
00:06:55us, so it would be worth it for them to
00:06:58keep a portal of this reputation
00:07:02that will now be able to get large advertisers, I
00:07:06in their this action see no
00:07:09economic logic but pure revenge because we..." "did not
00:07:13accept the decision of one, let me say, a large corporation, a small
00:07:17portal, a small Sparta, and I'm not exaggerating, managed
00:07:21to resist a large, a large
00:07:24corporate system, now look, now I'm trying to talk to you and think
00:07:28about what is it now, is this nothing or is this everything,
00:07:31which beginning, which end,
00:07:35well, we don't agree that it's the end, we will continue, just now I was with my colleague
00:07:39Ranko Pivljanin, we were arranging some next steps regarding
00:07:43this latest situation, we simply
00:07:45won't reconcile with it, we have set our red lines
00:07:49regarding our this, regarding that,
00:07:52we offered a compromise,
00:07:56we offered an alternative, we gave strong arguments
00:08:00as to why we, what I said at the beginning, why we
00:08:03think that way, and today at the meeting with the gentleman from
00:08:07Alpaka, we said, we asked him
00:08:10to reconsider and once again review their decision
00:08:14to impose that, let's say, this
00:08:18editorial duo close to the former regime, because what do we need
00:08:22all the same media for, they bought all the media that continue
00:08:25to poison today, we don't want to be some pro-government
00:08:29media now, leave us to be as we are, we will give the government 100 days
00:08:33and then we will see what that government did wrong, and
00:08:36I apologize, is this an exit or an entrance, so what is it, where are
00:08:40we? You know, the hardest
00:08:44question, are we in some
00:08:46limbo or what, we will fight to stay
00:08:50here, so that Nova RS does not change its
00:08:53DNA, because we are sorry, maybe people understand, I know
00:08:57this is not my portal, you know, but I participated from
00:09:00the beginning,
00:09:03seven years this story has been going on, I've been here from the very beginning, it will be seven
00:09:07years in December, I was called
00:09:10by the late Veselin Simonović and since then I know how many
00:09:14visits we had then, how many we have now and what kind of factor
00:09:18we are now for someone to come and because of some
00:09:21agreements to destroy all that, and it has
00:09:25the potential to maintain its reputation,
00:09:28to maintain its reputation, to retain readers and also to
00:09:32earn from it, I really don't see this,
00:09:35I don't see the reason why someone would do that, and when I ask you how
00:09:38then you explain that
00:09:42a day after those elections? Not to mention that it
00:09:45should be some new management, enlightened or
00:09:49unenlightened, but how is it then explained when maybe there are no political
00:09:53uh restrictions
00:09:57or I don't know, I tell you, I don't uh I don't know why
00:10:00they insist so much on that besides all these
00:10:04this uh events, our arguments,
00:10:07but I have some explanation, you know, if
00:10:11I was offered such a lucrative and good
00:10:15offer just to lead the portal, I can only imagine what kind of
00:10:18offer Marko got, who
00:10:21is supposed to lead the entire system and television, he decided to shut down the newspapers
00:10:25and the portal, I don't know what else,
00:10:29then in some contract, I even
00:10:33had that, you have that kind of golden parachute, you know, if
00:10:36uh the investor or the one who invited you, the management, if
00:10:40they decide to terminate it with you, then they have to pay you, now I don't know
00:10:44how much they agreed on, gross salary or some bonuses,
00:10:47and I believe that now it would cost Alpaka a lot to
00:10:51give up such a man, maybe
00:10:54that's... "I don't know, one of the reasons,
00:10:57maybe one of the reasons is also the agreement they had,
00:11:00the eventual agreement they had with this
00:11:03outgoing team, and that agreement certainly
00:11:07existed, some things were, let's
00:11:10say, there were some confidential meetings, it's not the time to talk
00:11:14about that, some things I witnessed
00:11:18and saw first-hand, I know
00:11:21who influences it and they know that I know.""
00:11:25Uh, so
00:11:29they are probably trying to, I don't know, to
00:11:32justify some agreement or maybe something they
00:11:36got, but on the other hand, these are people who, look,
00:11:39you, not only you and Ranko, and actually people who have that
00:11:43experience, does it now have something to do with that experience we just
00:11:46went through, when I just say they just pop
00:11:50into my head, how many wait, how many, how many newspapers have you
00:11:54worked for? In general, from Danas to
00:11:58from Danas to today, I worked in Danas,
00:12:01I worked at the beginning, so I was in that group
00:12:04of journalists who founded Alo,
00:12:07a tabloid that was then a pro-European tabloid, modeled after
00:12:11Bild, it was huge, large, owned by
00:12:14Ringier, and at that time all tabloids were, let's say, dark,
00:12:18black, they had, let's say, that right-wing
00:12:22kind of uh story, traditionalist, conservative
00:12:26story, we were something completely opposite, for us they
00:12:29wrote columns, I don't know, the late Dejan Anastasijević,
00:12:33Boris Dežulović wrote, I even think that, I don't know, someone
00:12:37mentioned, I already forgot, Dragan Bujošević, I'm not sure, but
00:12:40let's say it was a normal tabloid, it doesn't
00:12:44resemble this, I can freely say, garbage that they are making
00:12:47today, after that I was in Novi Magazin,
00:12:51a very respectable and
00:12:55serious weekly where I wrote some, mostly analytical
00:12:58texts, reports that I can still be
00:13:02proud of uh after uh
00:13:06that time I worked, I was a columnist for Al Jazeera
00:13:10Balkans, this portal, I occasionally
00:13:13wrote for Vreme weekly, after
00:13:17that I went, I mentioned Newsweek, I stayed in Newsweek
00:13:21for about a year, then I was in Kurir
00:13:24for some time as editor-in-chief for a few months, after that
00:13:28I was editor, deputy editor-in-chief, and then
00:13:31editor of video production, there I made two
00:13:34shows, one was called "Let's not lie," it's a format of conversations
00:13:38with various politicians and political actors, which at that
00:13:42time of some, let's say, reconciliation, calming
00:13:45things down, was a window uh to the world for
00:13:48the then opposition on such media, there were no
00:13:51truly relevant opposition figures who were not there. Even
00:13:55then, our television television, when it uh
00:13:58had some agreement with Kurir, so Kurir
00:14:02broadcast that show on our television, and I hosted some
00:14:05morning show with them when they, at that time, when they
00:14:09were, I don't know, anti-regime, that short time when the
00:14:12owner had a falling out, I don't know, with Aleksandar Vučić, that's how it
00:14:16happened with those media after
00:14:19I had another format there, briefly it was called "Ukratko" (In short), it's
00:14:23a kind of vlog, a story of four minutes where I mainly
00:14:26commented on some phenomena, but
00:14:29why am I asking you now, are these
00:14:32people who found themselves on the portal today and who 90%
00:14:36100% supported
00:14:39the moment of that
00:14:42struggle that seemed impossible
00:14:46before the elections, unfortunately, here I see, you mean people who work, who are
00:14:49employed, who work, who are employed, is that
00:14:52what it means? "Now, what we
00:14:56are talking about, your great experience, is it ultimately, perhaps a
00:14:59conscious or unconscious choice that you were against something? Well, no, you know what,
00:15:03even now, mostly people there
00:15:06somewhere identify with me,
00:15:09they call me, congratulate me, I don't know, and as long as
00:15:12the police don't call, everything is fine. If they do, tell us so we know where
00:15:16to go, that this uh, I
00:15:19am not, I am not the leader of any rebellion, nor am I any kind of
00:15:23leader, I was here in the position" of main deputy and
00:15:26responsible editor, and when Mihajlo was removed,
00:15:30I was by nature someone who was out front
00:15:33and exposed, so maybe I spoke a little more, I am not the editorial board
00:15:37of these... 60 people, you saw that through these some
00:15:40declarations, what I really, it's me, I knew
00:15:44that they are like that, I insisted that the voting be secret,
00:15:47but they wanted, we don't want, we all want to
00:15:51raise our hands, we want it to be seen, I wanted to
00:15:54give a chance to people who are against something, so that we
00:15:58can see where we stand in the editorial board, then we will
00:16:00talk, we simply had, whenever
00:16:04we made decisions, I saw such a determined editorial board.
00:16:08action that they are ready to fight and go all the way, then
00:16:12where do I get the strength to foam and talk so much about it,
00:16:15well, that editorial board pushes me, they give me strength, you understand, you start
00:16:19something, first of all this, I'll be honest now
00:16:23until the end, let's say when I was offered that position, I was like,
00:16:26I don't know if I'm able to accept it, because a person
00:16:28has, I don't know, some private
00:16:32problems and this and that, and what do I need it for, I knew what would be
00:16:36required - when I already got into it, let's see what
00:16:40they want from me, and they really didn't ask for any
00:16:43texts to be removed or anything, but you see that it's that subtle
00:16:46Gleichschaltung, you know, you give it a little spin here and there, why
00:16:50that title, it can be different, let's discuss
00:16:54about this, give me your assessment about this
00:16:57piece, I answered all that nicely until one day Brent Sadler came
00:17:00and told me, here's a list of journalists,
00:17:03write, I look at journalists from Novosti and from
00:17:07Alo, they come for three
00:17:11months, then they will go back, Stan, I'm sorry,
00:17:14who, who approved that arrangement, who is that man
00:17:17above all those editorial boards, who connects us
00:17:21and says, you will come here from a regime media to a
00:17:24critical and free media, then after
00:17:27three months, when these election stories are over, you will return to your
00:17:31workplaces in those regime media, who is that
00:17:34man who is who has..." that
00:17:37influence on Novosti, on Alo, on Nova RS, who
00:17:41is above Brent Sadler, Pedro Vargas
00:17:45David, since they don't know who those people are, someone who gave them
00:17:48that list, Raskrikavanje
00:17:52connected these media with Siniša
00:17:54Mali,
00:17:57and Siniša Mali was in some way behind that story, he is
00:18:01not in these papers, but his influence is
00:18:04evident, and how such an
00:18:07experienced journalist, a war correspondent, you know you are a war
00:18:11correspondent, how, how do you bring
00:18:14a list and put it in front of a colleague, well everyone has their own
00:18:18moment, you know, this, I don't know,
00:18:21he talks about that, and even today he talks, he asked us here in
00:18:25the editorial office, he asked me, Ratko, do you think I am,
00:18:29do you think, I don't know, I am a killer,
00:18:32a killer of free media in Serbia, I said without any
00:18:35hesitation that...
00:18:37"I think, I think he is a killer of free media in
00:18:41Serbia, now just today we are doing, maybe we even published
00:18:44a text on some podcast, he spoke with
00:18:48pride, how it all happened magnificently, what that
00:18:51change was like, how he led some independent editorial office
00:18:55here, in fact he was trying to soften
00:18:59that critical edge of ours in the name of professional
00:19:03standards, at least with us, with us it was..."
00:19:07evident and I
00:19:10could, I don't know, as they say,
00:19:13wiggle, we discuss
00:19:16about a lot of things and drag it out,
00:19:19prolong the situation so that it might last even longer until he came
00:19:23directly with that list, and that was really
00:19:26something, as they say, the moment where I detonated and where all
00:19:30that insecurity I told you about, whether I can do it, whether
00:19:34one can take responsibility for all people at any given moment.
00:19:40And I said, I, I'm done, I'm going to say this, I promised him I wouldn't
00:19:43say it that day because I was full of adrenaline, that I would
00:19:47leave some time for him to see what he would do, the next day I
00:19:50gathered the team and told them then that evening, before I
00:19:54announced it, I crossed myself out, as Major
00:19:57Gavrilović said, from the combat strength I reconciled myself with the fact that they
00:20:00might cancel me somewhere, I insisted with
00:20:04my colleagues, I said I would push this story, I want to
00:20:08consult with you, I don't want to put anyone in an awkward position, I won't
00:20:11hold anything against anyone, you all need to keep your jobs, especially since
00:20:15more than half of the editorial board here works in news and they didn't deal with those
00:20:19things, and it would really be useless for people to lose their jobs
00:20:23because of all that, but I then when I decided that
00:20:26after that, conditionally speaking, let's say death, maybe it sounds
00:20:30pathetic in some journalistic sense or in
00:20:34the sense of having a job or a secure
00:20:37license, when I saw that after that, let's say, there is
00:20:41life, there are various options, it doesn't have to be
00:20:43journalism, then I decided to go all the way, I got
00:20:47the support of the editorial board, we got the support of the public, international
00:20:51institutions and
00:20:54then there was no turning back because I would rather
00:20:57ask you this: an interview with Aleksandar
00:21:00Vučić or with Brent Sadler? Ugh,
00:21:03difficult question, but I don't shy away, I am not one of
00:21:07those who shy away from interviews, I mean, I won't even ask you that, what would I ask
00:21:11the first one and what the second one? Well,
00:21:14I would ask Aleksandar Vučić, since, well, now,
00:21:18since he called me out about
00:21:2010 days ago, because I was a guest on KTV
00:21:24television, I said, I didn't say a percentage, but I said,
00:21:27if they estimate in the morning hours, in the pre-noon
00:21:30hours that uh, that
00:21:33the turnout is high, the roads to the airport will be jammed,
00:21:36that was more figuratively speaking, like,
00:21:39let's say, stylistically, rather than I wanted to
00:21:43say that it would then be clear that they
00:21:46are falling, then he explained how
00:21:49impossible such a turnout is, now I would ask him, well,
00:21:53Oscar, what is possible, is it impossible
00:21:56now, did you see it going over how much, is it
00:21:5871, almost, I don't know, how much we are dealing with our
00:22:02struggle, I didn't manage to get over
00:22:0470, and I would ask Brent Sadler
00:22:07who gave him the list
00:22:11of journalists from Alo and from
00:22:14Alo Novosti, I apologize, I really must, maybe the answers are coming,
00:22:18yes, and I would ask... "I would ask him who gave him
00:22:21this list of journalists
00:22:25from regime media,
00:22:28and I would ask him if he knows Siniša
00:22:32Mali, I would ask him many questions, let's wait,
00:22:36let's wait, we don't get everything in the first week, everyone has a right to 100
00:22:39days, if you were
00:22:40someone,
00:22:44if I were someone, I would be someone.
00:22:46Oh,
00:22:49but you are someone." because you saw that you've been addressing me formally all this time, now I'm thinking if you're
00:22:53doing that because I'm 10 years older than you, no,
00:22:56but like, let's say we're on television, so like, this
00:29:19powers in Michigan there
00:29:22appears. some
00:29:30inner democratic party squabbles that are
00:29:32ongoing here around the senate candidate Abdullah. There
00:29:36was a back and forth over the weekend with Congresswoman Haley Stevens.
00:29:39She lost the primary, but she continues to make public her deep misgivings
00:29:43about backing him now, citing concerns about his ads and his
00:29:47views on Israel. At this point is the Democratic
00:29:51Party just too divided to pull off a win in
00:29:55Michigan. Is it getting in its own way? No, I
00:29:58think no. "I
00:30:00think the over, Haley Stevens lost a
00:30:04very, very close primary, I can
00:30:07understand being upset about that, but I think two
00:30:10days before the election, where
00:30:12people all over Michigan understand that this
00:30:16is the most important mid-term election,
00:30:19perhaps in the history of the United States, because we are
00:30:23taking on the most dangerous president that we've
00:30:26ever had, somebody was an authoritarian does not
00:30:30believe. the constitution or the rule of law, who wants to give
00:30:33massive tax breaks to billionaires, throw 15
00:30:37million people off the healthcare, that they had started in
00:30:40illegal, unconstitutional war in ar, so with the people in Michigan
00:30:44understand, sure, we have disagreements with Abdul on this and that
00:30:47issue, but from what I can see, all over
00:30:50the state, people are standing up, they're going to stand with
00:30:54Abdul, take on somebody who will be nothing more than...
00:30:58somebody who will be nothing more than...