The source of funding for the acquisition of the Adria News Network (ANN) — which owns Serbia’s last major independent television channel and one of Montenegro’s leading news outlets — is unknown. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned the sale could result in political influence in ANN outlets, and calls for full transparency on funding and that binding, enforceable guarantees of editorial independence be put in place before European authorities approve the deal.

European media and antitrust authorities — including Montenegro’s competition authority and Luxembourg’s government and media regulator — are gearing up to review Luxembourg-based United Group’s sale of ANN, a media group whose portfolio includes Serbia’s last major independent television channel N1, one of Montenegro’s leading news outlets Vijesti, and TV stations in European Union (EU) states Croatia and Slovenia. The sale will likely restructure the media landscape in the Balkans, yet the source of funding used by the prospective buyer, the Portuguese investment group Alpac Capital, has not been publicly disclosed.

In 2025, investigative outlets OCCRP and KRIK published a leaked recording in which the CEOs of United Group and Serbia's state-controlled operator Telekom Serbia discuss how to respond to demands to remove media executives attributed to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose attacks on N1 helped him earn a spot on the 2025 RSF List of Press Freedom Predators. What’s more, according to a joint investigation by Le Monde, Expresso and Direkt36, Alpac Capital bought its main media asset, the pan-European broadcasting network Euronews, in 2022 thanks, in part, to funds from sources close to former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban – an ally of the Serbian president and a fellow press freedom predator.

"The sale of ANN amounts to a media ownership earthquake in the Balkans and key information about the funding and strong firewalls between the owners and newsrooms is missing. Opaque funding favours dangerous liaisons, which may weigh on the outlets’ editorial independence – historically embodied by ANN’s Balkan media N1 and Vijesti, two outlets targeted by the Serbian government. We call on Alpac Capital to disclose the information and on European regulators to condition the approval of the acquisition by real, verifiable guarantees of editorial independence," commented Pavol Szalai, Director, RSF Prague Bureau.

After the Serbian investigative outlet KRIK had revealed the draft contract on May 14, 2026, the deal was formally announced on May 29 and is to be concluded in the second half of 2026. The transaction is formally structured as a sale between two Luxembourg-registered companies: Summer Parent S.à r.l., the ultimate shareholder of United Group, and European Future Media Investments, an entity of Alpac Capital.

In their joint press release, Alpac Capital and United Group highlight ANN’s current “governance framework,” which is touted as “the most effective way to protect editorial independence while providing stability, transparency and resilience for the business.” The press release claims that “Alpac Capital was selected on the basis that it provided the highest value while meeting the governance and independence principles established from the outset.”

When contacted by RSF for details about funding, editorial guarantees and other aspects of the deal, Alpac Capital and its CEO Pedro Vargas David did not reply.

Serbia ranks 104th and Montenegro 41st out of the 180 countries and territories surveyed in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index.