Retaliation by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications in the republic competition against ANEM members.

ANEM considers this a logical consequence of the abuse of the project co-financing concept, which exclusively serves to finance pro-government media, government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs), and the enrichment of individuals. Instead of preventing and anticipating phenomena at the national level that have been seriously undermining this concept at the local level for years, Minister Boris Bratina and Assistant Minister Dragan Traparić, through their inaction and disregard for previous abuses, have made a key contribution to the disastrous results of this year's distribution of state aid.

ANEM reminds the public that it, along with relevant journalistic and media associations, has consistently pointed out the controversial criteria that have led to a kind of scoring engineering and problematic compositions of commissions at all levels of government.

The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has ignored these and numerous other constructive proposals, insisting on a concept that deeply divides the local media landscape, punishing media that are guardians of the public interest, report professionally, are critical of the authorities, and advocate for adherence to the provisions of the professional Journalistic Code.

Therefore, we consider the results of this year's national competition to be a form of retaliation against ANEM members, as well as the media and organizations that participated in the competition and whose projects undoubtedly deserved to be supported with budgetary funds.

With a scandalous and unacceptable distribution of financial resources, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications jeopardizes the survival of the remaining professional media.

“For years we have witnessed the authorities' efforts to completely destroy professional media: through threats and physical attacks, obstructing access to information of public importance, lawsuits with high penalties, intimidation, and the total impunity of aggressors. Last year, we witnessed the largest theft from the project co-financing fund, which should support content of public interest produced by media that respect the Journalistic Code. This year, local and provincial authorities, along with the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, have surpassed this major theft: laws and regulations have been violated without any regard, with the obvious intent to further weaken or destroy the remaining independent media, while rewarding those media that do not deserve, by any criterion, to be nominated for these funds at all. This approach also includes media established in the past few months by owners of existing tabloid media, champions of violating the Journalistic Code, producing fake news, targeting and defaming professional journalists and media, turning them into targets for threats and physical attacks. The application of these completely anti-civilizational criteria threatens to remove from the media scene the few remaining media that prioritize the protection of the public interest, as well as to expand 'media deserts'—areas without professional media in Serbia. We call on European institutions to engage in this area and insist on repealing such non-transparent and unjust distribution of public funds and to create conditions for the allocation of money with strict adherence to the law,” stated Veran Matić, President of the Board of ANEM.

The results of this year's competition, as well as all previously conducted competitions for project co-financing at all levels of government, are more than a clear indication of the seriousness of the current situation. Representatives of the international community need to understand that symbolic gestures from the local authorities in the process of European integration must not and cannot serve as justification for this kind of retaliation currently being carried out by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.

More about this year's competition of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications at this link.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media “Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Project Co-Financing Processes” is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program. ANEM is solely responsible for the content, which does not necessarily reflect the official views of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.