The BalkanInsight portal said on Wednesday that Euronews has teamed up with a company owned by Serbia’s majority state-owned telecommunications giant, Telekom Serbia, to launch a Serbian-language channel whose legality and the government’s motives are being questioned by experts.

The portal recalled that Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told a ceremony that the arrival in Serbia of Euronews means “more media pluralism, respect for the highest professional standards and above all objectivity and impartiality” but added that media experts are alarmed by the tie-up between Euronews and Arena Channels Group, a company owned by the state-controlled Telekom Serbia.

BalkanInsight said that Serbia has slipped steadily down the media freedom rankings of international watchdogs under Brnabic and President Aleksandar Vucic.

“Experts say the venture violates a law that prohibits state-owned enterprises from founding or owning media outlets and worry it will be used by the state to create an illusion of media freedom. The Serbian government denies this, arguing that Telekom Serbia does not receive any money from state coffers, while Euronews – which receives funding from European taxpayers and counts a number of European public broadcasters among its shareholders – declined to comment for this story,” the portal said.

It quoted Brankica Petkovic, head of the Centre for Media Policy at the Peace Institute in Ljubljana who told BIRN that “the Serbian state is violating its own law.” “This is legal violence which can have serious consequences because of the level of involvement of political actors as well,” Petkovic told BIRN. “It would be hard to believe that Euronews, which has European public broadcasters as its shareholders, did not know about the media legislation, since that is the first thing any investor is doing when coming to any country.” BalkanInsight recalled that under Serbia’s 2014 Law on Public Information and Media, however, the Serbian state had until mid-2015 to give up its media holdings, a requirement that has still not yet been met.

“On the contrary, Telekom Serbia has been snapping up media outlets and in September last year Serbia’s Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media, REM, issued a broadcasting licence to Euronews Serbia. REM, which is frequently accused by the opposition of bending to the will of the government, said that the decision on Euronews was taken on the basis of a decision by the Ministry of Information in 2012 to give the green light to Telekom Serbia’s acquisition of Arena Sport, a sports channel,” it said and added that REM member Judita Popovic told BIRN that “this topic was not even a part of the regular REM session”.

The authorities say there is nothing illegal about Euronews teaming up with Telekom Serbia’s. Suzana Vasiljevic, media adviser to Vucic, argued that Telekom Serbia is not financed from the state budget and already owns a number of media in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Euronews will be in charge of editorial policy, she said adding that although Telekom invests, it does not control its editorial policy.

Media experts say the launch will intensify the battle between Telekom and its main rival in Serbia, United Group. They hold 42.4 and 46.1 per cent of the local telecommunications market respectively. United Group owns two cable television channels in Serbia, both of which are known for their criticism of the government – N1 and NOVA S. On the other side, the government is widely seen as wielding influence over all other national commercial broadcasters as well as the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, RTS.

“Telekom wants to additionally minimize the influence of N1, and hence the arrangement with a media of a similar profile in order to take over some of the journalists, but also the audience,” said Snjezana Milivojevic, professor of public opinion and media studies at the University of Belgrade. “When you cannot provide media freedom, you can make alliance with someone who can make it look as there is.”

Petkovic said both Telekom and United Group were too big, aided by Serbia’s controversial 2014 Law on Electronic Media that allowed cable operators to also have their own channels and produce content. “The expansion of both companies is dangerous,” Petkovic told BIRN. “Not just of state-owned Telekom, but also United Group.”