A meeting was held for candidates for the committees for project co-financing of media content.

The meeting was held at ANEM's premises in Belgrade and brought together candidates with previous experience in working on commissions, as well as those interested in participating in future evaluation cycles. The event was implemented as part of the project “Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Project Co-Financing Processes,” which ANEM is conducting with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program.

Participants had the opportunity to share experiences from the previous process — from applying and communicating with the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and local government units via the Unified Information System (UIS), to working within the commissions themselves. Through open discussion, numerous challenges and issues were identified, among which the inconsistent evaluation criteria, inadequate communication with institutions, and lack of transparency at certain stages of the process were particularly highlighted.

The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications was invited to attend today’s meeting but was unable to come.

Special emphasis was placed on the need to improve the scoring sheets used for evaluating candidates and media projects, as well as the importance of additional training and clearer guidelines for commission members.

Conclusions and recommendations from the meeting will be consolidated and sent to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, as well as to international partners involved in the reform of the media legislative framework, with the aim of improving the project co-financing system and strengthening the quality and integrity of the process.

This meeting also served as an introduction to the planned training for future commission members, which will be organized in the coming period in cities across Serbia.

“The large turnout, constructive discussions, and proposals from participants and representatives of relevant journalistic associations and media associations encourage us to continue the dialogue and further address issues with the intent of eliminating negativity and solving many problems in the domain of project co-financing of media content,” stated Saša Mirković from ANEM.

The meeting is organized as part of the project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media “Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Project Co-Financing Processes,” which is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA program.