The Ministry allocated millions intended for informing national minorities to the media of Milosavljević and Stijaković.

The media Radoica Milosavljević and Slavko Stijaković have "claimed" a third of the 60 million dinars allocated in this year's competition for co-financing media content production projects in minority languages.

The Commission of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications highly rated their projects, although most of these media outlets, as well as a significant portion of the remaining winners of the competition, report exclusively in Serbian, contrary to the "project objectives."

Additionally, the themes of the projects are such that one can conclude that minorities in Serbia face no problems, but are merely engaged in crafts, knitting, and folk dancing.

At the same time, media outlets that continuously produce media content in minority languages and address community issues have been left with crumbs from the competition funds.

Some have even given up on the competition in advance, knowing that they would certainly not receive state funds due to editorial policies that are not "in line."

What you can gain when you have your person in the commission

Cenzolovka has already reported that Slavko Stijaković, a former officer of the Yugoslav People's Army, is the absolute champion of the recently concluded competition for co-financing media content production projects in minority languages held by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.

His SS Tourist Television 1961 LLC generated eight million dinars from this competition alone, along with a network of portals registered across Serbia.

Another 2.6 million dinars were awarded to RTV Fruška Gora, Gradska Televizija M, and Radio Breg Titel, in which Stijaković is a co-owner alongside Aleksandar Milutinović.

Milutinović's MAY Media LLC additionally received 800,000 dinars for the production of programs in the Romani language, which will be broadcast on RTV Bosphorus from Aleksinac, also owned by him.

Aleksandar Milutinović is also the director of SOS Kanal Plus, which is owned by the runner-up of the competition for reporting in minority languages.

Specifically, the media network owned by businessman Radoica Milosavljević from Kruševac collected 10 million dinars in this competition, just 600,000 dinars less than Stijaković's media empire.

The largest amount awarded to Milosavljević came from Radio-Television Kruševac – 2.5 million dinars for two projects. SOS Kanal Plus, also for two projects, brought in another 2.2 million dinars.

Projects from Santos Comerce LLC Zrenjanin (1.2 million), RTV Leskovac (one million), and Kanal M Paraćin (900,000) also did well. TV Pirot and RTV Caribrod each received 800,000 dinars, while RTV Brus received 600,000 dinars.

Among the fortunate winners of this year's competition, in third place, are the media owned by family members of the current Minister of Defense Bratislav Gašić.

Zona Plus from Niš, owned by the younger son of Gašić, received 2.7 million dinars for two projects, while ADD Production for programs on Kruševac TV Plus, owned by the older heir, received 700,000 dinars.

Decent sums were also taken by television stations owned by Zoran Veličković from Vranje, as well as his competitor Vranjska Plus, and Media Center Kovačica, RTV Stara Pazova, Sremske Novine…

COMMISSION MEMBERS ENGAGED WITH COMPETITION PARTICIPANTS

The commission for this competition included Sandra Iršević at the proposal of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, Petar Njaradi at the proposal of the Journalists' Society of Vojvodina, Slavoljub Ristić from the Professional Association of Journalists of Serbia, and media experts who applied independently – Branimir Grulović and Mira Lolić Močević.

Of the five, judging by the statements in their biographies submitted to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, there are suspicions of conflicts of interest for three members, as they were engaged with certain competition participants as authors or project implementers as recently as last year.

Thus, the project writing experience of commission member Slavoljub Ristić is directly tied to Zona Plus. All the projects he authored and listed in his biography were written for the Niš television owned by Nikola Gašić.

Biljana Lolić Močević listed projects in her biography written for portals owned by SS Tourist Television of Slavoljub Stijaković, such as Peto tri 1941, Vidik sa Cera, and Tvrđava 1780.

Branimir Grulović, on the other hand, wrote all his projects for Radio Fruška Gora, co-owned by Slavko Stijaković and Aleksandar Milutinović.

Unlike Ristić and Lolić Močević, Branimir Grulović explicitly stated in the biography submitted to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications for whom he wrote projects, whereas the other two only listed project names and the competitions on which they were supported.

What remains when you know the winners are predetermined

For independent media reporting in minority languages that are not directly affiliated with the national councils of minorities, funds from donations and competitions are the only way to survive, as they are generally not of interest to advertisers.

However, many have given up on both local and state competitions, influenced by experiences from previous years.

Among them is Vladimira Dorčova Valtnerova, founder and editor of the Storyteller portal, which reports in Slovak and Serbian.

She states that they withdrew from the ministry's competition aimed at improving the quality of information for members of national minorities because the National Council of Slovaks would not give their project a green light.

Both the Law on Public Information and Media and the regulation on co-financing require that an opinion from the relevant national council of the minority be obtained for these projects.

– The National Council of Slovaks is under the direct influence of the Serbian Progressive Party, so media that are not aligned with that stance cannot count on support. We cannot obtain any information from the National Council of Slovaks unless we request it under the Law on Access to Information of Public Importance, so it is no wonder that our projects have previously received a "red light" in competitions, says Vladimira Dorčova Valtnerova.

For the past few years, they have thus applied to the ministry for the improvement of professional standards, where such confirmation is not required.

– Until last year, our projects were rated excellent. However, last year the rating was as if I had never written a project in my life. After that, it was made clear to me that we were on the list of media that cannot receive support, our interlocutor recounts.

Nor is Turkijan Redžepi, a journalist and producer of Roma World from Niš, satisfied with how funds are allocated in media competitions for reporting in minority languages, although his project was supported by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications this year.

– We received exactly what we requested, 503,000 dinars, which at first glance should make us satisfied. However, this year we decided to request the minimum amount allocated in the competition because we learned from experiences in previous years that we would never receive more than the minimum amount, if we get anything at all, says Redžepi.

He adds that the results of this year's competition, as well as those from previous years, show that media truly working in the interest of minority communities either receive minimal amounts or nothing at all.

Both Redžepi and Dorčova Valtnerova agree that independent minority media survive mainly due to the enthusiasm of editorial team members and the support of donor organizations, which they manage to obtain from time to time.

Source: Cenzolovka