Eight local governments have not yet allocated funds in the media competitions, and Surdulica has not even completed the process for 2024.

Although the deadlines for submitting media projects were set for the end of March and the evaluation committees have been appointed, the funds have not yet been distributed in Novi Kneževac, Čačak, and Preševo.

A new committee was elected in Čačak on September 10 after one of the members from the previous composition resigned, so the new members are expected to evaluate the projects and propose the allocation of funds.

In Vrbas and Gadžin Han, although the deadline for media applications has long passed, no committees have yet been appointed to evaluate the projects.

The head of the municipal administration in Gadžin Han, Aleksandar Ranđelović, stated in a written response to ANEM that due to a lack of available funds, they requested an extension from the relevant ministry for the implementation of the contest.

"All available funds in the municipality of Gadžin Han are being redirected to address water supply issues, which has led to a state of emergency being declared across the entire municipality. The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has approved the extension, and the municipality of Gadžin Han will conduct the contest and other activities related to the contest within 90 days from the lifting of the state of emergency as per the ministry's approval," the response from Gadžin Han states.

Sjenica has announced a new contest with a project submission deadline that expired in June, so the process is still ongoing, although an evaluation committee has been formed.

The municipality of Lazarevac suspended the entire contest process on August 1, and a decision regarding the announcement of a new contest is awaited.

As of today, there have been no responses from Surdulica, Lazarevac, Novi Kneževac, Vrbas, and Sjenica regarding the status of the media content project co-financing process in response to inquiries from ANEM.

In Bujanovac, the committee has completed its part of the work, and a proposal for the distribution of funds has been published; however, the contest was canceled following a budget rebalancing. On September 12, a new contest was announced, with a project submission deadline of October 3.

More information can be found in the ANEM media contest database.

The project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media "Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of the Co-Financing Process for Projects" 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.