Project co-financing in Niš and Dimitrovgrad: Funds are mainly allocated only to pro-regime media.
Funding for project co-financing of media content in Niš and Dimitrovgrad is allocated based on political criteria, primarily favoring pro-regime media, while those who report critically cannot expect to receive much funding through local government competitions, assessed representatives from media outlets who participated in a media project writing training organized in Niš by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).
Vesna Torović, editor of the Media Box portal from Niš, emphasized that her experiences with applications for funding competitions have been negative, as her portal has never received project co-financing. She has been able to secure funding at the municipal level, but not at the city level.
“Here, it is important who the project applicant is; it is clearly known who should receive the funds based on political influence. On the other hand, there is a sort of nepotistic, buddy, café coalition where commission members agree to allocate funds and projects for a certain percentage,” Torović assessed.
Nikola Stojanović, director of the Media and Reform Center Niš, also noted that project co-financing for media in Niš remains very poor and that projects are allocated based on a set key.
“Absolutely everyone who thinks differently from pro-regime media is unable to receive funding from the city. Media are difficult to finance, and it is hard to access funds that belong to the citizens of Niš. Unfortunately, I do not see any changes occurring in the near future, given the models that the authorities are using,” Stojanović stated.
The situation is no different in Dimitrovgrad. Slaviša Milanov from the FAR portal in that city assesses local media project co-financing as "catastrophic," which is why they no longer participate in competitions.
“Media close to the authorities are primarily financed, while objective and independent media receive almost nothing in terms of funding. The experiences of the FAR portal are such that we no longer apply for funding at the local level, at least until such a mechanism changes and a better commission review and scoring of project quality is established,” Milanov stated.
The interviewees were participants in the eighth of ten training sessions for writing media projects for local media, organized by ANEM this year in cities across Serbia.
The workshop, led by Ilir Gaši, was aimed at local media to acquire concrete knowledge about writing projects of public interest, in accordance with the Law on Public Information and Media, as well as projects of international organizations.
The training was attended by representatives of media and freelance journalists from Niš and Dimitrovgrad. The session was also an opportunity to exchange experiences regarding participation in this year's project co-financing process, specifically in the competitions announced by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and local government bodies.
The training was organized as part of the project by the Association of Independent Electronic Media “Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of the Project Co-financing Process,” which is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program. ANEM is solely responsible for the content of the workshop, which does not necessarily reflect the official views of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
