"One and a half million euros for propaganda – a decade of public or regime interest."

Two media groups from Vranje, affiliated with the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) – namely the media owned by Zoran Veličković (Radio-Television Vranje LLC and Radio-Television Bujanovac LLC), as well as Vranjska plus LLC – received a total of 178 million dinars (over 1.5 million euros) in funding for media projects from the City of Vranje between 2015 and 2025, according to official data from the documentation regarding the conducted competitions.

Sources from Slobodna reč within journalists' associations believe that in Vranje, as well as throughout Serbia, the most funding goes to media that do not criticize the authorities.

The media owned by Zoran Veličković – RTV (radio, television, and portal) and RTB (radio, television, and portal) – received over 100 million dinars (100,546,669) from taxpayers in the City of Vranje (around 860,000 euros) over the past 11 years to report in the public interest.

However, citizens who observed and documented who was present in the columns during protest marches in the streets of Vranje, titled “Citizens Against Blockades” – which were logistically supported by the SNS throughout Serbia, including the SNS branch in Vranje, justified as supposedly spontaneous gatherings of citizens under the auspices of a certain Center for Social Stability – doubt that Veličković's media operate in the public interest, given that they witnessed the owner of these media, based in Vranje and Bujanovac, participating in those same columns.

This was documented in photographs by journalists from Slobodna reč, as well as colleagues from several other local media outlets, who photographed Zoran Veličković walking through the city alongside other Progressives (and more than obviously – as part of the column) and “fighting against the blockades” organized by students and other citizens following the collapse of the reconstructed shelter at the Railway Station in Novi Sad and the death of 16 people.

In other words, citizens justifiably suspect that this media mogul supports the SNS, which is in complete contradiction to the provisions of the Journalists' Code of Serbia from 2025, which states in the section “Conflict of Interest,” point 6, that “working in PR and marketing agencies, lobbying agencies, state bodies and institutions, as well as political parties, is incompatible with the journalistic profession.”

VELIČKOVIĆ UNRESPONSIVE

To understand the other side and the reasons for his presence, journalists from Slobodna reč asked Zoran Veličković, owner of Radio-Television Vranje LLC and Radio-Television Bujanovac LLC, in what capacity he participated in those marches.

However, by the time this text was published, Veličković had not responded to the question of public interest for the citizens of Vranje, which the journalists sent to the official email address of Radio-Television Vranje, published on the portal of this media house.

When hardship pushes you – you establish another portal

Support from the local government for the media owned by Veličković, both RTV and RTB, has been particularly pronounced since 2022, as they received a total of at least 10 million dinars each year from local authorities over the previous four years, funded by the citizens of Vranje (10 million in 2022, 11.6 million in 2023, 14.55 million in 2024, and 14.5 million in 2025).

In addition to the projects for radio, television, and portal that were co-financed from the local budget in the previous decade, citizens of Vranje allocated funds in 2025 for another portal of this media house, symbolically named – When Hardship Pushes You (website: rtvvranje.rs).

Vranjska plus also has two portals

The other media house favored by the local government – Vranjska plus LLC – which, in addition to television, operates a portal, received a total of 77.59 million dinars (over 660,000 euros) from the pockets of citizens of Vranje between 2015 and 2025, inclusive of those years.

Unlike RTV, which received millions from the local government in 2015 and 2016, Vranjska plus only began to earn from competitions for co-financing media projects announced by the City of Vranje starting in 2017 – as it was, according to data from the Agency for Business Registers (APR), established on February 1, 2016.

It should be noted that the Progressives removed the Socialists from power in Vranje nearly 10 years ago – precisely in 2016, and the local public, which is familiar with the political circumstances in the city, has expressed doubt that this television was also established to provide media support to the SNS; to serve as another propaganda mouthpiece for the authorities, alongside the already established RTV.

From 2017 until 2023, considering the mentioned years, Vranjska plus received between 5.4 and 9.7 million dinars in local competitions for public information, depending on the year. The local government began to value the work of this television more in 2024 and 2025, although its media projects received 13.14 million dinars and 13.9 million from the local budget in those last two years.

Just as RTV has another portal, Vranjska plus (website: vranjskaplustv.rs) also has It Matters (website: vaznoje.rs), the project of which was, for the first time, just like the project of the new Veličković portal, co-financed with taxpayer money from the City of Vranje in 2025. When you open It Matters, you will see, essentially, the homepage of the “regular” Vranjska plus portal, which displays the Vranjska plus logo.

A curiosity is that both new portals of the two Vranje television stations, RTV and Vranjska plus, were registered on the same date – March 28, 2024. This information is publicly available in the media registry on the APR portal.

Since the publishers (RTV Vranje LLC and Vranjska plus LLC), due to the registration dates of the new portals, clearly “missed” the opportunity to apply that year for co-financing media projects announced by the City, they did so in 2025. And they were generously rewarded: the project for the portal When Hardship Pushes You was co-financed with 850,000 dinars, and It Matters – with 1.15 million.

Publicly warned by the Press Council for violating the Code

The portals of both RTV and Vranjska plus (the “regular” ones, not the new ones from 2024) have been publicly warned by the Press Council in recent years for violating the Journalists' Code of Serbia.

According to colleagues from Vranje, who regularly deal with the distribution of taxpayers' money for the co-financing of media projects, analyzing them every year from competition to competition, the two large media houses from Vranje, RTV LLC and Vranjska plus LLC – for which it is questionable whether they are driven by public or party interests, considering that in their media, it is rare to hear or read any criticism of the current authorities in any sphere, or to hear or read the voice of the opposition – have established their new portals in order to apply for future competitions with more media and to receive more money from the local budget.

The difference between second and third is 66 million

In third place among the 10 media that received the most funding from the City is OK Radio, whose projects have been valued at nearly 12 million dinars (11,670,866) over the last 11 years, or around 100,000 euros. This means that the difference between the media in second and third position on the list of the “most rewarded” in local competitions is as much as 66 million dinars (!).

In fourth place is RTV Ritam, which earned nearly 8 million dinars (7,920,335) during the mentioned period, though projects from this media were not supported in 2024 and 2025.

“Anomaly” in fifth place

The defunct Vranjske novine received around 4.5 million dinars (4,585,000) for its projects – in total – for 2015, 2016, and 2017. It was also shut down in 2017 after 23 years of existence. This media outlet received just over 2 million dinars (2,090,000) in 2015, nearly 2.4 million dinars (2,345,000) the following year, and in 2017, the year of its closure, only 150,000 dinars was approved from the local budget. It was as if the authorities wanted to “humiliate” Vranjske – and its founder, owner, and long-time editor Vukašin Obradović – who were a thorn in the side of the Vranje Progressives due to their critical reporting.

Projects from TV Info Puls were valued at a total of 4 million dinars by the local authorities, yet in 2015, 2016, and 2017, this media house did not receive a single dinar for its projects.

Seventh on the list is the VranjeNews portal, which is also critically oriented towards the work of the local authorities, established in January 2018. From that year until 2025, this media outlet received a total of 2.76 million dinars. The aforementioned portal has never received more than 550,000 per project (on an annual basis), but it is notable that it was allocated only 100,000 dinars in 2025.

The JuGmedia portal, based in Leskovac, received nearly 1.5 million dinars (1,484,540) in a total of 7 out of the last 11 years (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022) from the budget of the City of Vranje.

Ninth on the list of media that have received the most funding from the local budget for public interest projects since 2015 is the Vranjski Online Magazine (VOM), which received a total of 1.05 million dinars in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

In local media competitions – in 2015, 2016, and 2017 – the Agency for Providing Hosting and Directing Services “Astoria plus”, PR Goran Spasić also received funding totaling slightly over 850,000 dinars (855,450), placing it in the last, 10th position on the list.

It should be emphasized that since the change of government in Vranje in 2016, funds have no longer been allocated to Južne vesti, which received a total of 787,500 dinars from the City budget in 2015 and 2016. Additionally, since 2019, Bujanovačke have not been co-financed, having received a total of 531,000 dinars from the City for their projects from 2015 to 2018.

“No one evaluates the projects”

Bojan Cvejić from the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) told Slobodna reč that for years there has been a model whereby the media that “do not criticize the authorities” receive the most funds at the local level.

“This was particularly evident during the last competition year, 2025, where we had examples and testimonies that even those small critical media, which used to receive certain amounts in competitions, received nothing last year if they reported on student and civic protests. Overall, we have these favorites in every local government, such as the two televisions you mentioned in Vranje” – Cvejić said.

According to him, in every city there are favorites of the authorities that receive “the majority of the funds.”

“In Novi Pazar, for example, Radio-Television Novi Pazar receives between 80 and 90 percent of the distributed budget for competitions” – Cvejić explained.

He emphasized that the problem is that “no one is conducting evaluations,” which is legally required – “to evaluate those projects once every three years, based on a certain sample.”

“We do not have data on whether evaluations have been conducted or whether those media that receive those enormous amounts actually comply with at least that part of the project – to see what they publish for that money, how they spend that money. This is a major problem that should be urgently addressed,” Cvejić concluded.

Source: Slobodna reč