Vladan Stefanović's media received 27 million dinars in this year's media competitions.

Media owned by Vladan Stefanović received at least 27,135,000 dinars (approximately 230,000 euros) this year from media competitions in Serbia.

According to data from the Unified Information System (UIS) of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications (MIT), at least 16 projects of Vladan Stefanović's media were supported.

The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications allocated the largest amount of money, a total of 17 million dinars, for the implementation of 10 projects.

The Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities supported four projects with 8,435,000 dinars, the city of Subotica will pay 1.3 million dinars for one project, while Novi Bečej will co-finance another project with 400,000 dinars.

Four companies and twelve media outlets

Vladan Stefanović owns at least four companies – media publishers – and twelve media outlets. According to data from the media register, the company VTV DOO Subotica is the publisher of at least seven media outlets: TV Subotica, tvsubotica.com, tvbackavrbas.rs, TV Bačka, Radio Bačka, TV Bečej, and TV Novi Bečej. VTV DOO also has two subsidiaries, Radio Subotica – Szabadkai radio and City Radio DOO Subotica. The former is registered as the publisher of Radio Subotica, while the latter is registered as the publisher of Naxi City Radio from Subotica. In addition to these, Stefanović is also the owner of the company Magazin dani, which is registered as the publisher of the newspapers Magazin dani and Novobečejski dani, as well as the portal magazindani.rs.

Companies and media of Vladan Stefanović

Supported project for an unregistered media outlet?

The Ministry of Information supported four projects in the radio competition, and according to data available in the UIS, mentioned in the decision on the allocation of funds, it states that the project "Challenges of Inclusion of Roma," which received 1.2 million dinars, will be implemented through Radio Kikinda. However, the media under this name was removed from the APR media register back in 2016, as well as from the media services register of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media.

We asked the Ministry why it supported a project that stated that the content would be published in a media outlet that is not registered, but we did not receive a response before the publication of this text.

We also attempted to obtain an explanation from Vladan Stefanović; however, he did not respond to our questions, which we sent to the email addresses of four of his companies.

The Law on Public Information and Media states that the right to participate in the competition is granted to "a publisher whose media is registered in the Media Register in accordance with the law, and who has the appropriate authorization to provide media services in accordance with the law regulating electronic media or who is registered in the Media Services Register maintained by the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, when it comes to electronic media.”

In the radio competition, the following projects owned by Vladan Stefanović's media were also supported: "Guardians of Nature" with 1.2 million dinars, which will be implemented through Radio Bačka, and the same amount will be received by Radio Subotica for the project "From a Young Age", while one million dinars will go to the project "Report – Save" which will be broadcast on Naxi City Radio. In total: 4.6 million dinars for radio.

Four projects were also supported in the competition intended for television: "Jewels of Secession" with 2 million dinars, which will be broadcast on Televizija Subotica, 1.8 million dinars will go to the project "Third Age" on TV Bačka, and the same amount will be received by TV Novi Bečej for the project "I Take Care of Myself, I Take Care of You" and TV Bečej for the project "Art is Eternal." In this competition, Vladan Stefanović's media will receive 7.4 million dinars.

In the competition for print media, the Ministry decided to support two projects: "Colonial Settlements in Northern Bačka" with 2.6 million dinars for content that will be published in Magazin dani and "You Can Do It" with 2.4 million for the newspaper Novobečejski dani, totaling 5 million dinars.

The Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities will co-finance the project "Sacred Heritage in Subotica" with 2.2 million dinars, and the content will be broadcast on TV Subotica. Content generated within the project "Let Recreation Be Motivation" will be published on the portal tvsubotica.com, with 1.87 million dinars secured from the provincial budget. Magazin dani secured 2.5 million dinars for the project "We Preserve Cyrillic," while Radio Subotica received 1.865 million dinars for the project "Three in One."

In addition to the Ministry and the Provincial Secretariat, projects of Vladan Stefanović's media will also be co-financed by Subotica and Novi Bečej. Residents of Subotica will allocate 1.3 million dinars for the project "Around Us," while Novi Bečej will support the project "Here, Around Us" with 400,000 dinars.

Uncertainties regarding the number of contents

In the summary of the project "You Can Do It," for which Novobečejski dani received 2.4 million dinars, it states: “42 media contents will be produced: 7 articles for the newspaper, 7 announcements for the newspaper, 7 announcements for TV, 7 extended TV packages, 7 TV packages translated into sign language, 7 radio packages.” The average value of one media content is slightly over 57,000 dinars.

This project received funding in the MIT competition for print media. However, the summary shows that only seven articles and seven announcements will be published in print, while the rest will be published in other types of media. All projects submitted by Vladan Stefanović's companies similarly state the number of contents that will be realized.

We requested clarification from Vladan Stefanović. We asked how many topics would be covered within one project and whether the content is only adapted for transmission in other types of media, but we have not yet received a response.

We also asked the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications whether it would co-finance all contents or only those for which the competition is intended, in this case, print, but there has been no response yet.

Author: Ivana Kragulj
Source: NUNS

VTV, ComNet, ARTS, and competition commissions Vladan Stefanović registered the Association of Electronic Media "ComNet" in May 2014, and the company VTV ComNet doo in October of the same year. In June 2018, "ComNet" was removed from the company name, and only VTV DOO Subotica remained. He also founded the Association of Radio and Television of Serbia (ARTS) in 2015, of which he is still a representative, while he was replaced in that position in ComNet in 2019 by Emilija Marić, the editor-in-chief of Novi Sad Television. Representatives of these associations, along with the Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (DNV) and the Professional Association of Journalists of Serbia (PROUNS), have been frequently found in the commissions that decide which projects will be supported in competitions for co-financing projects in the field of public information for years. The Journalists' Association of Serbia has previously stated that the representativeness and relevance of these associations are questionable, and that “activities mainly boil down to mass candidacy in commissions and the allocation of funds to media close to the authorities.” According to an Analysis of the Process of Co-Financing Projects for Media Content Production in Serbia in 2025 published by ANEM, PROUNS had its representatives in 53 cities/municipalities out of 142 decision-making bodies established by that date, which is more than a third, DNV had 45, the Center for Media Culture and Education had 35, UNS had its representatives in 39 commissions, ARTS in 37, RAB in 25, ComNet in 14, the Association of Sports Journalists of Belgrade in 13, the Association of Media and Media Workers in 11, the Media Community of Serbia in 10, and the Journalists' Society of Niš and Local Press in one each.