News

Here is how the funds for media were distributed in Zaječar before the elections.

Public Interest in the Shadow: GMinfo and Takovske Novine Reduced to Symbolic Amounts. While 15 million dinars have been allocated from the budget this year for project co-financing of media content in Gornji Milanovac, local media that inform citizens on a daily basis – GMinfo and Takovske Novine – received a symbolic 100,000 each.

Students in protest today requested from the parliamentary Committee for Culture and Information to ensure transparency in the process of selecting members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) and to "not repeat the mistakes" from the previous process.

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) protests against the decision of the Mayor of Despotovac, Zlatko Marjanović, to annul the media competition because, as he stated in his explanation, the majority of submitted projects pertain to online portals, "and the population of Despotovac is of an older age and does not get informed through portals."

After the debate between the ruling party and the opposition at the meeting of the Culture and Information Committee of the Assembly of Serbia, the report on the list of candidates and nominators for members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) was adopted, without the opposition members. June 5 was set as the deadline for the 11 candidates and seven organizations to complete their documentation.

The announced amendments to media laws will primarily threaten investigative journalists who report on organized crime and criminal proceedings, and may lead to an increase in the number of lawsuits that journalists are already overwhelmed with, according to representatives of journalistic associations and members of the working group interviewed by KRIK. Changes to one provision of the Law on Public Information and Media will significantly restrict the information that journalists will be allowed to publish about investigations and court proceedings, they believe.

The director of Citizens' Initiatives, Maja Stojanović, stated today that the new process for selecting members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) is more problematic than the previous one, adding that some of the proposed candidates have no work experience in electronic media and have very questionable biographies.

A meeting of the Culture and Information Committee is scheduled for today at 2 PM, during which proposals for candidates for members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) Council will be discussed.

The situation is somewhat paradoxical - the adoption of amendments to three media laws, which are arriving in parliament, is expected to fulfill an important condition for opening Cluster 3 in Serbia's negotiations with the European Union. However, this could simultaneously limit freedom of expression, which is one of the important foundations of the Union. Media experts are warning about this, presenting a number of shortcomings outlined in the new legislative proposals.