Information

If, in the next year, the residents of Kragujevac are informed about local events according to the way funds from the city budget designated for public information are distributed, they will mostly receive biased news about the Serbian Progressive Party and its satellites.

The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) calls on the President of the Municipality of Despotovac, Zlatko Marjanović, to withdraw the Decision to suspend the Competition for co-financing media content production projects, as it is not in accordance with the Law on Public Information and Media and the Regulation on Co-Financing Projects for Achieving Public Interest in the Field of Public Information.

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.

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."

The time has passed for those who support the SNS, portals where no one works, craft shops, those who violate the Journalists' Code every day and have no connection to the cities where they received funding - but certainly not for those who regularly report on student protests.

After the A1 portal pointed out irregularities in the competition announced by the Municipality of Sjenica in April of this year – which was intended exclusively for television stations – the local authorities retracted the previous decision and announced a new public competition, this time open to all public information services.

From the 80,750,000 dinars allocated by the City of Niš for co-financing media content production projects, 29 projects received a total of 54,170,000 dinars, with the largest share (24 million) going to RTV *Zona plus*, owned by the youngest son of Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić. While in previous years, media outlets owned by Vidosav Vitko Radomirović received the most funding, this time none of the media from his empire received a single dinar. Notably, the portal *Niška inicijativa*, run by Srđan Nonić, made its debut among the recipients with 590,000 dinars.

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!