Information

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) protests that the draft budget for 2026 proposed by the Municipality of Bečej allocates all 10 million designated for information to be paid for "contract services."

Five local governments have not yet completed the competitions for project co-financing of media content for the year 2025, even though the calls to the media were published a long time ago. These are Sjenica, Preševo, Vrbas, Gadžin Han, and Bujanovac.

The budget of Serbia for the year 2026 allocates 62.3 million dinars more for project co-financing of media content at the national level compared to this year.

The Municipality of Inđija has allocated more than 32 million dinars for media content in its proposed budget for 2026, while lawyers and auditors warn that in previous years, most of the funds were distributed non-transparently, outside of a competitive process, and without clear reporting.

The Municipality of Surdulica is the only local government that has not yet announced a competition for project co-financing of media content for the year 2025, while the competition for 2024 only concluded in September of this year. The President of the Municipality, Aleksandra Popović, explains to ANEM that due to deadlines, the competition for this year will not be announced, and that the funds will be distributed through "special programs permitted by law."

Project co-financing at the local level boils down to the allocation of funds to media outlets that are close to the authorities, which do not report on student protests or publications from other cities, according to interlocutors who participated in a two-day training for writing media projects organized by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) in Čačak.

"In 11 years of project co-financing for the media, a total of 17,380,729,907 dinars has been allocated, which is just over 148 million euros. Despite this, it has been shown that the allocations for the media have been reduced to a third of the amount that local governments and the state designated for this purpose before privatization," it was stated at today's presentation of the "Gray Book on Co-Financing Media Content Production Projects from 2015 to 2025" at the Press Center of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS).

The same person cannot be a member of more than 20 committees for the evaluation of media projects during one year, as stipulated by the Regulation on Amendments and Supplements to the Regulation on Co-financing Projects for the Achievement of Public Interest in the Field of Public Information, which was adopted on November 10 of this year.

The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications informs the public that on November 10, 2025, the Regulation on Amendments and Supplements to the Regulation on Co-financing Projects for Achieving Public Interest in the Field of Public Information was adopted (“Official Gazette of the RS”, number 98/25).