News

The Media Fund Serbia is a program implemented by the Balkan Trust for Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway (NMFA) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Serbia (SDC).

Three media laws were presented at the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to members of the Working Group, as well as to journalistic and media associations. They are expected to be submitted to parliamentary procedure in the shortest possible time. Gordana Konstantinović, a lawyer for the UNS, claims that the presented draft text has been inaccurately represented as the text of the Working Group. However, Miloš Garić, advisor to the Minister of Information and Telecommunications, emphasizes that the members of the Working Group are very well acquainted with these three laws.

The channels Insajder TV, Blic TV, and Euronjuz Srbija were shifted to lower positions in the MTS programming schedule yesterday, without explanation or notification.

Amendments to laws concerning journalism have been expected for years. Working groups, inclusive, were formed. Then, they were disbanded, and the ministry wrote its own versions of the changes. Afterwards, the ministry invited representatives of journalists' associations and media associations to an urgent meeting, to agree with the ministry's visions. When asked by the members of the working groups, who wrote the texts of changes that are completely different from what was discussed at the working groups, they were answered that the proposals came from Brussels.

Although media associations participated in working groups to amend three key laws – on public information and media, electronic media, and public media services – the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications presented drafts of the laws that these participants had never seen in their final version.

The European Commission is monitoring developments in Serbia, and it is essential that journalists can perform their work without any threat of violence, harassment, or intimidation, they stated in response to a letter from United Media. It was also added that Serbia is expected to create a supportive environment in which media freedom and freedom of expression can be exercised without hindrance.

In Serbia, journalists work under pressure. They are subjected to insults, harassment, surveillance, and even physical attacks. In the field, they are humiliated, intimidated, and assaulted. On television, they are publicly targeted by the highest state officials, including President Vučić himself.

The media with floral-folkloric names (kilim, ramonda, daffodil, and lilac) owned or co-owned by Slavko Stijaković have already received nearly 209,000 euros from the Ministry alone. And the funds from local competitions are yet to arrive!

Based on the proposal of the Commission, the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Dimitrovgrad has allocated funds from the budget designated for media projects. As in previous years, the largest portion of the funds went to media outlets owned by the Kruševac businessman Radoica Milosavljević, who is closely associated with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party – two media outlets under his ownership received 11.1 million dinars out of a total of 13.8 million, which is approximately 80%.