Analysis of the Co-Financing Process for Media Content Production Projects in Serbia in 2023 and 2024.
When discussing project co-financing for media in 2023 and 2024, one can say for certain that both years have been marked by new media laws.
At the beginning of 2023, the competitions announced for that year, according to the old Project Co-Financing Law, resembled, both in terms of the amounts allocated for project co-financing and the composition of the commissions, as well as in the distribution of funds, more or less to all previous years since the introduction of project co-financing. Abuses, circumventions, and even direct violations of the Law were not absent in 2023, just as in the years prior.
A part of the media community was aware that changes were necessary to return the idea of project co-financing to its foundations, meaning that professional media should receive funds through competitions.
In accordance with the Media Strategy, work began on drafting media laws in 2023. There were extensive debates and lengthy meetings involving representatives of the media community, authorities, and international organizations regarding the Law on Public Information and Media and the Law on Electronic Media. At the end of October, just before the adoption of a set of media laws, marathon meetings were held in an effort to reach some form of compromise between representatives of the media and journalism and media associations and government representatives.
The new media laws came into force on November 4, 2023.
Although the authorities in Serbia guaranteed that the laws they adopted would improve the state of the media, the implementation showed otherwise. Instead of using the new provisions in the Law to prevent abuses, they are once again being circumvented in practice.
Local governments across Serbia have drastically reduced their budgets for media co-financing projects compared to the previous year. In some cities and municipalities, the budget for media competitions has been reduced by more than ten times.
Project co-financing of media was introduced with the idea of preventing the influence of local governments on the editorial policies of local media. Thus, in theory, the funds from local governments for public information should be awarded to media based on the quality of their work and submitted projects.
However, the authorities have so far found ways to question the concept of project co-financing and, in most cases, distribute funds to media close to them rather than to professional media.
For a large number of local media, financial resources from local government units are the main source of funding. By reducing budgets, the level of previously achieved media rights has been diminished, and further reductions could mean the demise of financially exhausted and pressurized local media.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications announced in 2024 an increase in the amount of money for project co-financing of media in 2025 by 180 million dinars. Although positive, this increase should not serve as coverage for the drastic decline in funding for these purposes at the local level.
Although "on paper" the previous Law on Public Information and Media was good, the new one is even better. Just as shortcuts and workarounds were found for the first law, the same has happened in the first year of implementing the new Law.
Considering the practice in the first year of implementing the Law on Public Information and Media, it is evident that, in order to prevent new types of abuse, this Law too will need serious revision.
The question arises, is there a limit, and how detailed does the law have to be to regulate every step in the process to ensure that the project co-financing process is fair?
The entire analysis is available at this link.
The analysis was created as part of the project by the Association of Independent Electronic Media "Participatory Monitoring of Project Co-Financing Processes," supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program. ANEM is solely responsible for the content of the analysis, which does not necessarily reflect the official views of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The analysis was developed in collaboration with the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS). The author of the analysis is Kristina Kovač Nastasić, the editor-in-chief of the UNS website.
