Open letter to Dejan Kocić on Nova.rs

To Dejan Kocić, Chief Executive Officer, United Cloud
(Copied to the management of Alpac Capital)

Dear Mr Kocić,

The undersigned partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) are deeply concerned by reports that Nova.rs’s existing editorial team could lose access to the system it uses to publish and manage its journalism. We urge United Cloud to clarify its involvement immediately and refrain from implementing changes that would disable or suppress the newsroom’s independent reporting, both ahead of the upcoming election or after the vote.

We support the multiple concerns raised by Serbian journalists’ associations, media organisations and trade unions in their open letter of 15 October. The Nova.rs newsroom reports that United Cloud has been asked to remove existing editors’ administrative and publishing permissions and give exclusive editorial access to Marko Stjepanović and Ivana Mastilović Jasnić. This could prevent its current editors from publishing articles, managing sections and editing the homepage. The unjustified management decision comes at a highly sensitive pre-election moment.

We note United Cloud’s response that it provides software services and does not interfere in its clients’ editorial independence or decisions. However, the response does not explicitly confirm whether your company received the reported instruction, whether it has acted on it, or whether it intends to do so. Removing the newsroom’s ability to publish would have direct editorial consequences, regardless of whether United Cloud itself selects or edits any content.

In the message to employees published on 13 October, Nova.rs’s management defended its authority to appoint editorial leadership and stated that it respects editorial freedom. It also gave employees unwilling to work under the new leadership until 19:00 on 15 October to request departure with compensation.

Our concern is that the reported removal of access risks disabling the existing newsroom as a whole during the electoral period, rather than provide a transition that safeguards independent reporting. Readers risk losing a distinct source of independent scrutiny at a critical point in the electoral process.

We therefore call on United Cloud to:

• Confirm whether it has received instructions to restrict existing editors’ access, identify the changes requested, and disclose whether any have been implemented;
• Refrain from implementing access changes that would prevent the existing newsroom from working while urgent discussions with its representatives take place;
• If access has already been removed in a manner that prevents the newsroom from working, urgently restore it;
• Preserve published reporting and relevant records of access changes, and refrain from implementing instructions to remove material for the purpose of suppressing critical journalism.

We call on Alpac Capital to engage urgently with the newsroom’s representatives, explain how its proposed editorial transition will protect independent reporting, withdraw any instructions that would silence the existing newsroom, and ensure that journalists face no retaliation for raising concerns about editorial interference. Our organisations also remain deeply concerned by other developments at the Nova.rs newsroom by ANN’s management.

Please provide an urgent written response addressing these questions and explaining the safeguards in place before any further changes to editorial access are implemented.

The MFRR stands in solidarity with the Nova.rs newsroom and the Serbian organisations defending its independence. We will continue to monitor developments and raise concerns directly with relevant European and international actors.

Yours sincerely,

The undersigned partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response

• Free Press Unlimited (FPU)
• International Press Institute (IPI)
• European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
• European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
• Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT)
• ARTICLE 19 Europe