Media reporting on student protests have run out of funding from competitions across Serbia.

Local governments in many cities and municipalities across the country have denied funding in the public information competitions to media outlets that covered and reported on student protests.

Instead, the funds were awarded to television stations affiliated with the Serbian Progressive Party, portals that are inactive, craft shops, or private productions and media from the capital that violate journalistic codes.

The chief editor of the portal Jugpress from Leskovac, Ljiljana Stojanović, was jokingly asked in an informal conversation in the city how she expected to receive funding for covering the protests.

In Kragujevac, the day before the commission convened to decide on media projects, the editor of Glas Šumadije, Jovanka Nikolić, received information, as she told Cenzolovka, that it would be difficult to secure funding because "an order came from the top to pay special attention to Kragujevac."

Judging by the commission's decision, attention was indeed paid, as Glas Šumadije did not receive a single dinar.

Without funding from the city budget were also the portal Pressek, as well as the only printed newspaper in the city of Kragujevac, whose projects had previously been rated highly. All three media outlets reported on the student protests, often broadcasting events live on their social media profiles.

For Jovanka Nikolić, this outcome of the competition in Kragujevac is not surprising, as there is a television station in that city that continues to receive funding from the city budget in violation of the law. Radio-Television Kragujevac receives tens of millions each year to broadcast rallies of the Serbian Progressive Party taken from TV Informer.

– I believe they know that the time has come to end the era in which the incompetent decide on anything, so this year they decided to completely disregard all criteria, took off their gloves, and distributed the funds to their media. In Kragujevac, these are media that invent conferences, violate journalistic codes, and are not relevant because the people of Kragujevac do not watch or read them, explains the editor of Glas Šumadije.

How the residents of Kragujevac will be better informed by those based in Belgrade, Vranje, a craft-trading shop from Velika Plana, and a production company from Kraljevo instead of local media remains a question to which neither the commission members nor the local government have provided answers.

Miljković Dabić: Did the commission members make a decision in Kraljevo?

The media in Kraljevo faced a similar fate. The largest portion of funds in this competition, as in every year, went to Privredno društvo Radio-televizija Kraljevo and Ibarske novosti, as well as Radio-Television Melos. Funds were also allocated to productions from Čačak, Vrnjačka Banja, and Borča, as well as the Kraljevo portals Narcis and Jorgovan, owned by Slavko Stijaković, about whom Cenzolovka has already reported.

Among the recipients of the competition, there is no portal Krug, whose editorial policy, according to the chief editor Marina Miljković Dabić, apparently does not sit well with the authorities in Kraljevo.

– The decision for our portal to receive not a single dinar in the competition was, in my opinion, not made based on the quality of the project we submitted, but because our editorial policy is different—we operate in the interest of the citizens, not the authorities. The job of a journalist is not to copy press releases from city websites but to ask questions about all relevant topics. If that is the reason we fell below the line, then it sends a message not just to us, but to all professional media that they should be quiet, obedient, and not rock the boat. We do not agree with that message, says Miljković Dabić.

She is particularly concerned that in Kraljevo, reasons for rejecting projects were not provided, and the commission members did not sign the resolution. They, according to our interlocutor, signed on blank paper, which raises doubts about the entire procedure, as it appears that they gave blank signatures for something decided by someone else.

Unlike Kragujevac and Kraljevo, the competition in Kruševac has been predictable every year. It was known that Radio-Television Kruševac, affiliated with the ruling party, would receive the majority of the funds. This time, this media outlet, with three projects for television, radio, and a portal of the same name, received 58 percent of the budget allocated for media.

Journalists in Kruševac say there was some unwritten rule that all media from this city would receive some funding in the competition, even if it was not enough to implement a project, but it at least maintained the appearance of neutrality. This year, however, it happened that even media based in Kruševac fell below the line.

One such outlet is the portal Odjek, a relatively new media outlet, staffed by journalists with many years of experience. They founded this portal after a change of ownership at the printed media where they had worked for over a decade.

– Last year, we were the only local media that did not pass the local competition. We were not granted funding this year either, which we expected, especially since we are one of the two media that regularly report on protests locally. The local television, which has not published a single news item about citizens gathering in the streets since the protests began in Kruševac, even when around 8,000 people gathered, received significantly more than all others. This year, funding was approved for a portal that the citizens of Kruševac do not even know exists, owned by a man who launches portals across Serbia, says Danijela Pavlović, the chief editor of Odjek.

Jugpress without funding in Vlasotince, minimal in Leskovac

The regional office of Jugpress this year, according to chief editor Ljiljana Stojanović, performed catastrophically in almost all competitions where it submitted projects. They did not even apply in Vranje and Niš. In Vranje, 97 percent of the budget went to two television stations close to the authorities. In Vlasotince, they did not receive a single dinar, while the commission in Leskovac granted them some minimal amount.

According to the interlocutor of Cenzolovka, this was a great surprise for her, as she was informally told not to expect any funding since they reported on the student protests.

– In Leskovac, we were among those who received the lowest amounts. I think it was done in the spirit of 'let's give them something so they can't say anything.' The commissions were composed in such a way that it was already known who could pass. The results of the competition show that we were right. In Vlasotince, funding was awarded to two media outlets that do not exist, which none of us know about. In Leskovac, funding went to media that had not updated their news for months, emphasizes Stojanović.

She states that this pattern repeats itself year after year, but that this method of distribution has culminated this time and that it is evident that the funds were allocated based on party directives. All of this jeopardizes the survival of media in southern Serbia. Thus, the weekly Nova naša reč, the only printed media south of Niš, will likely have to suspend printing. Stojanović also mentions that the very survival of Jugpress is in question.

Source: Cenzolovka