ANEM calls on the relevant ministry to investigate what is happening with the competitions in six local governments.

The competition in Preševo was announced in April of this year, the commission was formed in May, and the funds have still not been distributed.

In Vrbas, the competition was announced as early as the beginning of March, and as of today, a commission for project evaluation has not even been appointed.

In Gadžin Han, the media competition was announced in April. As previously explained to ANEM by the head of the municipal administration, due to a lack of available funds, they received an extension from the relevant ministry for the implementation of the competition in question.

The municipality of Bujanovac canceled the previously announced competition for co-financing media content on September 12 and decided to announce a new public call. The deadline for submitting projects was October 3, and there is still no decision on the appointment of a commission or the distribution of funds on the Unified Information System (JIS) of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.

A second or supplementary competition is also underway in Čačak, which was announced on October 7. The commission has been appointed, but there is still no decision on the distribution of funds.

Surdulica is the only local government in Serbia that has not announced a media competition for the year 2025. The mayor highlighted to ANEM that the implementation of projects for the year 2024 is ongoing, that they are preparing to announce a call for 2026 in February, and that there will be no competition for the current year as the funds will be distributed through "special programs permitted by law."

ANEM reminds that transparency and compliance with regulations and deadlines are of utmost importance for the process of co-financing media content, considering that these are public funds that should co-finance information that protects and promotes the legally defined public interest.

We call on the relevant ministry to check whether and how transparently the administrative bodies that announce competitions publish the texts of the competitions, decisions, and other documentation on their official websites, as there are numerous complaints that this obligation is not being fulfilled.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media "Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Co-Financing Processes for Projects" is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program. ANEM is solely responsible for the content, which does not necessarily reflect the official views of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.