Serbian Media Group Files 150 Suits, Claiming 'Repression'

"All employees at the Adria Media Group and at the daily [newspaper] Kurir are working in scandalous conditions of repression by the authorities," Adria Media Group's chief of corporate communications, Zelimir Bojovic, alleged in comments to BIRN, explaining the large-scale legal actions launched by the company.

The media group announced on Monday that it had filed a total of 150 lawsuits against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Tax Administration workers, the editors and owners of several Serbian tabloids, and many others.

The move came in reaction to an alleged smear campaign in pro-government media targeting Adria's flagship tabloid Kurir and the group's owner, Aleksandar Radic.

Kurir used to be strongly pro-government, but in recent months started to criticise the Serbian administration and Vucic, as did some other Adria outlets.

The lawsuits were also a reaction to the Tax Administration's decision to freeze the company's bank accounts on July 7 over alleged tax debts, although the amount Adria was claimed to owe was never revealed.

Bojovic insisted that "AMG has no tax debts".

He said that the group's journalists were continuing to fight for "what the government is trying to permanently take away all the time, the right to free reporting and critical writing about all the scandalous moves and criminal acts at the top of the government".

With more than 820 employees, AMG is one of the biggest media companies in Western Balkans.

It published 57 printed and 26 digital editions, plus 21 YouTube channels in Serbia, Macedonia, and Croatia, and owns licences for the Serbian issues of National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, Men's...