Journalistic associations provided support to the editorial team of Nova.rs: Ongoing communication and updates with international stakeholders agreed upon.

At the beginning of the meeting, Veran Matić, the President of the Management Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, paid tribute to the journalists and editors of Nova.rs, stating that they are on the frontline defending professional journalism and journalistic integrity.

The Deputy Editor-in-Chief Ratko Femić, who currently leads the Nova.rs team, thanked the journalistic organizations for their support and outlined the sequence of events that led to the current situation in the editorial office.

Femić spoke about the changes that followed the arrival of new ownership and management, the dismissal of the former Editor-in-Chief Mihailo Jovićević, attempts to introduce new staffing solutions without prior consultation with the editorial team, as well as the recent developments in which Marko Stjepanović, a long-time editor of Blic, was presented to the editorial office as the future Editor-in-Chief.

A clear message was conveyed to NUNS, UNS, ANEM, and the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation from the employees that the selection of the Editor-in-Chief is not just a staffing issue, but also a matter of preserving editorial independence, professional integrity, and the identity of the media that the editorial team has built over the past seven years.

The editorial team of Nova.rs presented the majority opinion of the employees that Ranko Pivljanin should be appointed as the new Editor-in-Chief, with the expectation that management will respond positively to this initiative.

The editorial team of Nova.rs reiterated that it does not contest the legitimate business rights of the company's owners, but believes that journalists and editors must participate in consultations when decisions are made that directly affect editorial policy and the future of the media.

At the meeting, it was agreed that there would be daily communication between the editorial team of Nova.rs and journalistic and media associations to ensure that the professional public is timely informed about the further development of the situation.

Additionally, it was agreed that journalistic organizations would initiate and organize a meeting of editorial members who have been under pressure and at risk of changes in editorial policy with representatives of embassies and international organizations within the European Union.

It was also agreed that relevant international actors and organizations for the protection of media freedom would be informed about the developments at Nova.rs.

The journalists and editors of Nova.rs will continue to insist on the protection of editorial independence, professional standards, and the right of the editorial team to carry out their work without pressure and imposition of solutions that lack the trust of the people who built this media outlet.