Two months after the release of the Lučić-Müller video: Criminal charges for trading in influence filed with TOK, but the case has no epilogue

Is there an investigation into the audio recording of a conversation between United Group CEO Stan Miller and Telekom director Vladimir Lučić, which discusses an agreement to weaken the United Media media house, which also operates the N1 television station? It appears that there could be an investigation by the organized crime prosecutor’s office. And is there an internal investigation underway? For now, it is unknown.

Two months have passed since the public recording of the telephone conversation between Stan Miller and Vladimir Lučić. And it seems that everything was already revealed at that time. It has become even clearer what the recipe is for the fate of free media in Serbia.

“We have to find a way to do this quickly,” can be heard in the audio recording in which Miller responds to Lučić.

The Association of Constitutional Advocates responded quickly. Due to the possible influence in the aforementioned recording, they filed a criminal complaint with the organized crime prosecutor’s office against President Aleksandar Vučić and Telekom’s executive director Vladimir Lučić. Lawyer Ivan Ninić says that shortly afterwards they received a letter from the prosecutor’s office requesting the entire audio recording.

Nenad Milanović, Aleksandar Šapić’s chief of staff, was convicted for the second time based on audio recordings that the Birna editorial team presented in one of its articles. This actually leads us to the conclusion that if the prosecution wants to obtain these audio recordings, it can analyze them and determine whether there are elements of a criminal offense,” said lawyer Ivan Ninić.

Since the recording was made public, things have been falling apart. And everything, explained the N1 interviewee, can be easily resolved.

“This is truly a unique case in the world, where the director of a private company agrees to such arrangements. At this point, we cannot judge in advance why this is the case, but we can say that such agreements are usually concluded for some profitable reasons, so the prosecution should answer certain questions about whether there are any transactions or counter-transactions behind them. If they move in the direction of investigating the allegations in our criminal complaint, then they should also question Vladimir Lučić and Aleksandar Vučić and other actors in this conversation,” he added.

And when – it is not known. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office requested an audio recording of the conversation from the KRIK editorial office before the Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office, but for other reasons – they needed it for a criminal complaint filed by the United Group. The editorial office announced at the time that the prosecutor’s office’s intention was actually to reveal the journalist’s source, i.e. who had provided them with the recording.

The recording of the conversation also reached Brussels. The European Parliament’s resolution mentions, among other things, that the government negotiated with the owners of United Media, under which N1 operates, to “weaken” this media outlet, warning that if this were confirmed, it would constitute a serious attack on the already threatened media pluralism in Serbia.

The head of the European Union delegation in Serbia told N1 that media freedom is of paramount importance and that independent journalism is the essence of a democratic society.

“We constantly emphasize that there must be an enabling environment for the media. And we constantly repeat that we expect senior officials to refrain from verbal attacks and threats directed at independent journalists. And this is a major challenge here in Serbia. The problems of political and economic pressure on independent media, including editorial independence, must be resolved,” said Andreas von Beckerat, head of the EU delegation in Serbia.

Following the European Parliament’s resolution, United Group categorically rejected, as TV Nova stated in its response, “false accusations of alleged negotiations with the Serbian government aimed at ‘weakening’ United Media.”

Regarding the criminal complaint filed by the Serbian Ombudsman, N1 sent United Group a question asking whether an internal investigation had been conducted on the basis of the aforementioned audio recording, but we have not yet received a response.