The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications is obligated to initiate misdemeanor proceedings against local governments that have not yet announced public competitions for the realization of public interest in the field of public information.
The Law on Public Information and Media strictly stipulates that all calls for project co-financing must be announced by March 1 of the calendar year.
The law stipulates that a monetary fine ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 dinars will be imposed on the responsible person in a public authority for the violation if they fail to announce a public competition for the realization of public interest in the field of public information.
An inspection of the Unified Information Platform of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications clearly shows that ten days after the expiration of the legal deadline, several local self-governments have still not announced competitions for co-financing projects in the field of public information.
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) expects that the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and Minister Dejan Ristić will immediately initiate misdemeanor proceedings against all local self-governments that do not comply with the provisions of the Law on Public Information and Media.
ANEM reminds that delays in announcing competitions in numerous local self-governments also occurred last year, but the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, despite announcing that they would do so, did not impose fines on the responsible persons in the aforementioned public authorities.
