Merošina retracted the decision to announce the media competition.

The decision regarding the temporary withdrawal has been published today on the Unified Information System (UIS) of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.

Although there is currently no possibility for candidates to apply for committee membership, this year's calls have also been announced by Novi Pazar, Petrovac na Mlavi, and Žagubica, where even a committee has been appointed. However, two out of three members of the appointed committee in Žagubica did not apply for project evaluation this year.

We remind you that applications for project evaluation committees are not possible until the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications publishes the final list of candidates for committees in 2026. Currently, a preliminary list has been published along with the Ministry's appeal not to announce calls until the list is final.

"We also remind you that all bodies of local self-government units and provinces conducting public calls in the field of public information are obliged to wait for the publication of the final ranking list of candidates for members of the public information competition committees, which is published by the Ministry, and that until the final ranking list of candidates for committee members for public information competitions is published, they cannot form their own project evaluation committees in this area. After the formation of the final ranking list, candidates will have the opportunity to apply for membership in the committees for public information competitions conducted by local self-government units, provinces, and the Ministry," the Ministry stated at that time.

Journalistic and media associations have requested the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to immediately publish the biographies of all candidates for committee membership for media competitions listed on the published preliminary list, in order to make the process of project co-financing for media content and the budget distribution of over 15 million euros in 2026 more transparent.

Associations (Association of Independent Electronic Media – ANEM, Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia – NUNS, Journalists' Association of Serbia – UNS, Media Association, and Local Press) pointed out that it is problematic that only the candidates themselves can submit complaints on the preliminary scoring list, and only if they notice that they have not been adequately scored by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications based on the documentation they submitted.

No response from the Ministry has been received, nor have the biographies of potential candidates for committee membership been published.

Source: ANEM

The project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media "Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Project Co-Financing Processes" 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.