Letter from ANEM to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications

Dear Minister,

With undisguised surprise, we learned through the website of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications https://mit.gov.rs/vest/sr/123... on December 30, 2024, about the “Amendments and Supplements to the Rulebook on Co-financing Projects for Achieving Public Interest in the Field of Public Information along with the accompanying forms published in the 'Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia', No. 106/24.

Considering that today is December 31, 2024, I wanted to briefly point out a few key facts that require clarification from your side, on behalf of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

Given that the amendments to the Rulebook in Article 3 stipulate that “Journalistic and media associations shall form a database of their candidates by the end of the year preceding the year of the competition, which will be maintained in the registry of candidates for commission members within the Unified Information System, from which they propose a commission member for each individual competition announced in the following year,” it raises a logical question of how it is possible to accomplish this within just one day, as only a few hours remain until the end of 2024?

The same applies to the amendments to the Rulebook which stipulate that: “Theorists, analysts, and practitioners in the field of media, who meet the requirements set forth in Article 19, Paragraph 1 of this rulebook, shall independently apply by the end of the year preceding the year of the competition to the registry of candidates for commission members within the Unified Information System.”

Even if there had been enough time to meet this requirement (which is not the case), it remains unclear how the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications was even able to provide this information, given that until this moment, no public information has been published regarding access to the Unified Information System, which would support the possible practical realization related to the application and proposal for the Candidate Registry. This also pertains to the amended provision, which states:

“A journalistic and media association may propose only one candidate from the candidate registry for each individual competition of the authority.”

All of the aforementioned should be further examined in the context of significant changes evident in the document titled Form No. 3, which needs to be thoroughly analyzed by relevant stakeholders who encountered the final version of the document for the first time when it was published yesterday on the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications’ website.

In light of all the above, we believe it is essential for the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to provide answers to these questions and clarify the mentioned dilemmas as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Veran Matić

President of ANEM