Millions from media tenders are being redirected to public procurement in order for the favorites of those in power to receive them.

The competition for project co-financing in the field of public information in Pančevo was announced on February 28, while the results were published only on June 26, a month after the deadline.

The commission members, consisting of Sandra Iršević, Brano Pijetlović, and Branislav Sančanin, made the decision to support nine projects. There were no surprises, as the funds again primarily went to media outlets that exclusively write positively about the authorities.

Like last year, the City of Pančevo allocated only 4.2 million dinars for the media competition. In Pančevo, as in other cities in Serbia, funding for these purposes has been drastically reduced since 2024, which Cenzolovka reported. From a former 40 million dinars, which had been allocated for years, Pančevo has reduced that amount by almost ten times.

The thesis that cities and municipalities have significantly reduced allocations for media competitions to avoid the application of the Law on Public Information and the Media, under which the condition is that media receiving funds from competitions must adhere to the Code of Journalists of Serbia, proves to be accurate in the case of Pančevo.

Through the public competition, the City could not allocate funds to them, but chronic violators of the Code – tabloids, received funds through public procurement contracts. Last year, taxpayer money from Pančevo went to the accounts of the publishers of the tabloids Alo and Informer, as well as the pro-government website ePancevo, owned by Aleksandar Čupić.

THE MOST FOR PANČEVO

In the media competition in Pančevo, the weekly Pančevac received one million dinars, the Creative Cultural Club Starčevo and the publisher of the weekly START 013 each received 700,000 dinars, RTV Pančevo – 600,000 dinars, Vojvodina Press, Pančevac-net, and the website Zdravo Pančevo each received 300,000 dinars, the website 013info – 200,000 dinars, and the Information Center Oblak – 100,000 dinars.

Pančevo's Love for Tabloids

Our research showed that the City of Pančevo allocated just over 29 million dinars to media publishers and productions through advertising service procurement contracts last year. When we add the allocations for the media competition of 4.2 million dinars, we come close to the amount the city allocated in previous years.

It is disappointing that a large portion of the funding in Pančevo went to tabloids – both Belgrade and Pančevo tabloids, amounting to as much as 7.3 million dinars. The beneficiaries are the darlings of the competition, which Pančevo has been financing for a long time – Open view from Vršac, the publisher of the website ePancevo; the tabloid Alo and Insider Team, which publishes the tabloid Informer. These two Belgrade tabloids have been at the top of the list of media that most violate the Code of Journalists for years.

In terms of the number of violations of ethical and professional standards, the tabloid Alo ranked first in 2024, while Informer came in second in the monitoring by the Press Council, yet they still received millions in Pančevo. Informer signed two contracts last year – in July and December.

But let's proceed in order.

The aforementioned tabloids were allocated nearly 4.4 million dinars from the Pančevo budget last year.

Alo media system received 996,000 dinars including VAT, for "creating and broadcasting video reports on socially responsible actions, with a special emphasis on sensitive categories of the population." It was agreed to produce 10 videos of two minutes each for 498,000 dinars, as well as for their distribution.

The publisher of Informer – Insajder Tim fared even better than the competition. They received almost 3.4 million dinars in July and December. In July, they received nearly one million dinars for nine video clips about the economic development of Pančevo, and in December, slightly less than 2.4 million for the production and distribution of video content related to projects for future generations being conducted by the City of Pančevo.

For the production of a single 15-minute video, they planned to spend as much as 1.3 million dinars, and for distribution, more than one million dinars.

Insajder Tim was obligated to deliver the final product to the City and distribute it by the end of the year on an internet portal visible within the territory of the South Banat District.

Even the darling of the city authorities, Aleksandar Čupić, whose companies have received at least 23.3 million dinars in city media competitions from 2016 to 2023, did not leave empty-handed. He received just under three million dinars.

For that money, Čupić committed to produce and distribute 30 video recordings, focused on infrastructure projects. The cost of each video is around 50,000 dinars, while distribution costs just under one and a half million dinars.

On the internet, we found all 30 video recordings titled "New Infrastructure in Pančevo," published over two days – September 19 and 20.

The posts contain text of five to six sentences, without statements or data, and the video content lasts 2:01 minutes. They consist of aerial footage of Pančevo and surrounding settlements, with a musical background, without a single word, interviewee, or subtitles… You can watch the video reports at this link.

Video Worth Its Weight in Gold

The most valuable procurement contract for purchasing TV airtime was concluded on August 22, 2024, with RTV Pančevo for 15 million dinars.

For that money, RTV Pančevo committed to exclusively promote the local government. This included reports on activities being conducted in the city, monitoring the activities of the City Administration, the functioning of city and utility companies, interviews with officials and representatives of local government and public enterprises…

RTV Pančevo received 15 million dinars, even though at that time it did not have a broadcasting license, as the license, like many other television stations in Serbia, expired on March 7, 2024, and the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) had not timely made a decision on a new competition. A new regional license was issued to RTV Pančevo only on November 7 of last year. The television station committed to deliver the license to the City when it was obtained.

The publisher of the Novi Sad weekly Dnevnik received two million dinars for "the development of entrepreneurship and self-employment." They were supposed to produce and showcase 10 short videos.

A contract worth 1.5 million dinars for the production and distribution of 12 videos about the "cultural map of the city of Pančevo" was also awarded to the production company Photo production from Belgrade, owned by Goran Macan, as well as Stella Production, also from Belgrade, for video clips about the tourist potential of Pančevo and projects in the field of ecology.

For an informative film about improving the quality of life for the citizens of the City of Pančevo, two million dinars were awarded to the Novi Sad company Teddy production, represented by Sonja Kokotović Zečević, former director of the program at Radio-Television of Vojvodina. The contract was concluded on December 19, with a deadline for the film's completion set for December 25.

The contract specifies that the bidder is obligated to create a script that the client must approve. Additionally, the main themes will be specified by the client, i.e., the City of Pančevo.

The material is required, as stated, to be delivered in a digital format suitable for further broadcasting and distribution on the official channels and social media of the City of Pančevo. A total of two million dinars is allocated for the production of this film.

Among the video clips produced for the City and intended for broadcasting on the official channels and social media, we did not find any.

The City of Pančevo has accounts on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, but from July, when the contracts were concluded, until the end of 2024, no videos on the topics specified by the contracts were published on social media.

Source: Cenzolovka