Hundreds of thousands of viewers, who watched N1 over the past years on BH Telecom's Moja TV cable platform, were left without the N1 signal, from midnight on Thursday, because the BH Telecom management did not change its decision to turn off the signal of international news television, the most watched cable channel in BiH, ahead of the start of the election campaign in the country.

“N1 is welcome” to the Moja TV platform, but not on a commercial basis as before, but free of charge, i.e. under the same conditions as other news televisions, announced BH Telecom, not mentioning the fact that the other news televisions it offers, such as Al Jazeera and TRT did not even ask for any compensation, because they are financed by other countries.

The position of N1’s parent company, United Media, is that BH Telecom’s call to distribute N1 on a non-commercial basis was only a forced move after the stormy reaction of the public, knowing that such a deal would be impossible to accept because it is precisely the distribution fee that is the main source of funding for N1 and the work of over 100 media professionals in N1 BiH.”

All commercial televisions, including numerous TV channels owned by Telekom Serbia, are paid by BH Telecom in the millions, which the public company hides from the public while offering a welcome to N1 television, but for free.

All of this points to political rather than business motives for the announcement of the N1 signal shutdown, to which the American and British embassies, as well as leading international institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reacted. They say freedom and media pluralism are key for citizens to make their own, informed opinions and decisions.

The contract between the United Media company, the owner of N1 television, and the public company BH Telecom ended on August 31, at midnight.

Since midnight, a large number of inquiries have arrived on the e-mail and N1’s social networks, as well as messages in which readers/viewers informed us that the signal has been cancelled.