Analysis of Fog Cleaners: Tens of millions of dinars of state money ended up with a network of affiliated local media.

This means that this media publisher received an average of nearly 27,000 euros annually from the state based on competitions announced by various levels of government.

“Impres” LLC Bačka Topola was established on September 17, 1995. As of July 17, 2019, the legal representative of this entity changed to Miloš Lončar, who is also listed as the director of this legal entity in the Business Registers Agency (APR).

Since 2010, “Impres” LLC has been registered as the publisher of Trend Radio, which, following a change in the ownership structure of the publisher that occurred in July 2019, changed its name to Naš MM Radio 97.8 at the beginning of 2020. As of April 2026, Miloš Lončar is listed as the editor-in-chief of that media outlet in the APR Media Register.

Miloš Lončar is also the editor-in-chief of two other media outlets.

One is Radio Jugović, published by the limited liability company “Invitem” from Kać. The other is Naš Radio – just folk hits, published by the Association “Center for Training and Education” from Žabalj. In both legal entities, the legal representative is also – Miloš Lončar.

According to UNS's database on project co-financing for media content production, Radio Jugović has been approved a total of 59,434,000 dinars (approximately 507,000 euros) for the implementation of 77 approved projects from various levels of government (City of Novi Sad, Municipality of Temerin, Municipality of Žabalj, Municipality of Titel, Municipality of Bački Petrovac, Municipality of Beočin, Municipality of Sremski Karlovci, Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities, Ministry of Information) from 2015 to 2025, while Naš Radio has been allocated 36,210,001 dinars (309,000 euros) for 39 projects, also from various levels of government (Municipality of Žabalj, Municipality of Titel, Municipality of Bečej, Municipality of Temerin, Municipality of Srbobran, Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities, Ministry of Information).

All three media outlets – Radio Jugović, Naš MM Radio, Naš Radio – just folk hits – have visually almost identical online presentations, and the website of Radio Jugović contains links to two more radio stations. One is Radio Klik FM 91.7, whose editor-in-chief is Nataša Lončar, who has also been the legal representative and director of the media publisher, the limited liability company “Master Craft” from Kula, since 2022. The other media outlet is Radio Zrenjanin 103.6, whose editor-in-chief is Marija Lončar, who is also the legal representative and director of the media publisher, the limited liability company “NS Vid Media” Novi Sad, which has two other registered media in its portfolio – Radio Sombor 97.5 and the portal Radio Sombor. “Master Craft” received 9,804,154 dinars (83,500 euros) for 22 approved projects, among which production of content in the Rusyn language is included, from 2015 to 2025, according to the UNS database (Municipality of Kula, Municipality of Vrbas, Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Information, and Relations with Religious Communities), while for the implementation of 25 projects by “NS Vid Media” (Sombor, Kula, Apatin, Kikinda, Novi Sad, Pančevo, Velika Plana, Kovin, Plandište, Kovačica, Opovo, Bela Crkva, Alibunar, Smederevo, Zrenjanin, Žabalj), 21,677,999 dinars (approximately 185,000 euros) were approved.

Naš MM Radio – priority since 2019

In co-financing media content production, regarding the Bačka Topola Naš MM Radio, the Municipality of Bačka Topola contributes the most, followed by the Municipality of Mali Iđoš, the City of Subotica, the Municipality of Čoka, as well as the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities, and the Republic Ministry of Information.

In terms of annual contributions, the Municipality of Bačka Topola allocated a record 3,000,000 dinars to this media in 2023, during the provincial and parliamentary elections. That year, “Impres” LLC, as the publisher of this media, also received 1,000,000 dinars from the City of Subotica, 750,000 from the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities, and 700,000 from the Municipality of Mali Iđoš.

Parliamentary elections were also held in 2022, when “Impres” LLC received 4,850,000 dinars based on participation in competitions, including 2,600,000 from the Municipality of Bačka Topola, 750,000 from the relevant provincial secretariat, 600,000 from the City of Subotica, 500,000 from the Municipality of Čoka, and 400,000 from the Municipality of Mali Iđoš.

Since 2015, the least funding based on competitions received by “Impres” LLC as a media service provider was in 2024, when local elections were held.

That year, however, a change occurred in the way the state provides financial support to media outlets, with nearly all local governments’ budgets for co-financing media content production through competitions being drastically reduced in favor of contracting media services.

Thus, “Impres” as a supplier, in an open procedure, entered into a contract with the City Administration of Sombor for the production of a promotional informational film and video recordings – video promotion of the city of Sombor for 2,400,000 dinars.

“Invitem” LLC from Kać, which publishes Radio Jugović, also started using this opportunity in 2024, signing 17 contracts with budget users amounting to 2,352,765 dinars, among which the Institute for Field Crops and Vegetable Production stands out, which in 2024 purchased airtime for broadcasting program content for 996,432 dinars, and the Municipal Administration of Žabalj, which in 2025 purchased airtime for radio broadcasting of program content for 833,333 dinars. The “Center for Training and Education” also entered into 8 individual contracts with budget users from the Municipality of Žabalj worth a total of 1,110,000 dinars starting in 2024.

In 2025, the budget funds allocated for co-financing media content production projects in the Municipality of Bačka Topola were also significantly reduced compared to previous project cycles, with only 1,250,000 dinars set aside for these purposes.

“Impres” was granted 400,000 dinars for the project “Natality First” for a “series of research and analyses on current topics related to natality in Bačka Topola and Vojvodina,” i.e., for an informative-educational genre of programming that combines elements of investigative journalism and interactive discussions.

“This series contains eight episodes broadcast on radio waves and available online. The text volume varies depending on the topic and segment of the episode, but each episode lasts about 20 minutes. The series encompasses eight radio episodes, each specially designed and produced,” states the project documentation.

Magločistač, based on a request for access to information of public importance, requested these episodes that should be part of the project implementation report, according to the Rulebook on Co-Financing Projects for the Realization of Public Interest in the Field of Public Information, which stipulates that users of allocated budget funds must also provide a recording of the published media content on portable digital media as proof of project implementation for professional training, enhancement of professional and ethical standards, and research in the field of public information. The Municipality of Bačka Topola did not respond to that part of the inquiry, stating that they only have the requested content for 2024.

At the same time, outside of competitions, “Impres” LLC signed a Service Provision Agreement with the Municipality of Bačka Topola for the purchase of airtime for broadcasting programs in Serbian on June 10, 2025, worth 4,440,000 dinars including VAT, or 3,700,000 dinars excluding VAT.

This contract, which Magločistač obtained based on a request for access to information of public importance, states that during a ten-month period, 200 episodes will be broadcast, with an individual price of 18,500 dinars. The content will include advertising and promoting municipal events, as well as announcements from the local government across all areas of work.

“Impres” LLC also signed a radio broadcasting service agreement with the City Administration of Subotica on October 27, 2025, with a value of 1,000,000 dinars including VAT, or 833,333.33 dinars excluding VAT.

The subject of this contract, which was provided to Magločistač based on a request for access to information of public importance, is the broadcasting of radio content for the needs of the city of Subotica in the field of culture, specifically fine arts, literature, film and theater arts, and the work of associations dedicated to preserving culture, customs, and traditions at the request of the Subotica City Administration and in communication with representatives of the local government unit.

Neither of these two contracts has yet been registered on the Public Procurement Portal, which is a legal obligation.

Magločistač reached out to Miloš Lončar via email for a comment on the claims made in this analysis; however, no response was received by the time of publication.

Cvejić: It is essential to conduct regular external and independent evaluations of supported projects and the work of commissions

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) has created a database based on published decisions on fund allocations posted on the platform of the Unified Information System (JIS) of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, allowing insight into the amounts allocated through public competitions for all media for the year 2025.

The goal of this project is to ensure the protection and promotion of the legally defined public interest and public funds in the implementation of the project co-financing institute for media content.

Journalist Bojan Cvejić from ANEM, who is also the author of several analyses on media project co-financing, violations of the media code, and the position of journalists in local media, told Magločistač that based on the results of all completed competitions for project co-financing in 2025, “it is evident that there are certain ‘favorites’ that receive either support for a large number of projects across multiple different competitions or large sums of money for co-financing the same.”

“These are often media outlets that do not report critically on the authorities and those that are in some way close to the ruling structures. This is further supported by the questionable composition of the commissions we observed during the past year, meaning that the same group of people rotated in a large number of them,” says Cvejić.

Additionally, he emphasized that “it is certain that some commission members are not very familiar with the local media market, nor do they further inform themselves and check the media to which they allocate funds, and all of this is supported by the scoring system based on which many media that do not deserve money from the state budget automatically receive a large number of points.”

He believes that in order to draw fact-based conclusions, it is necessary to conduct regular external and independent evaluations of supported projects and the work of the commissions.

Commenting on the specifics of 2025, marked by student and civic protests across Serbia, Cvejić notes that it is indicative that many media outlets that reported on those protests did not receive any funds in competitions, although previously, despite their critical editorial policy, they received at least some meager amounts.

“What we hope for is that this year a much larger number of quality and competent individuals will apply to be members of the project evaluation commissions so that the situation can partially change and allow more of them to point out to the public some dubious activities during the work of the commissions,” said Cvejić.

Commenting on the impacts of the practice of local governments mostly reducing budgets for project co-financing of media content of public interest in favor of public procurement, he states that this has led to a greater transfer of propaganda and hate speech from national pro-regime media to local media.

“This has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of physical attacks and threats against female and male journalists, particularly at the local level. The new local media that have started to register this year, which have the same owner and editor, or individuals who organized pro-government counter-protests in numerous cities in Serbia, are now also participating in the spread of this propaganda machinery. It is expected that more such media will suddenly appear as they try to secure as much funding as possible through project co-financing,” believes Bojan Cvejić.

Source: Magločistač