Project co-financing in northern Vojvodina: Less funding for projects, more through public procurement.

According to their statements, this way the process of project co-financing for media content has been rendered meaningless.

Those who have experience with this year's competitions pointed out the problem with applications through the Unified Information System (UIS) of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications. Among their concerns were the inability to skip certain fields and fill them in later, as this prevents further progress, as well as the fact that once an application is completed, it cannot be corrected.

“The UIS did not function technically well, and it was difficult to reach people who could assist and guide us,” noted a representative of local media from Subotica.

Journalist Maja Savić from the Subotica portal Magločistač points out that the smaller the community, the greater the problem of media financing. She adds that media revenue from advertising has diminished, leading some media outlets to rely solely on project co-financing.

“In smaller communities, you have a situation where the same people receive the same funds year after year, often without even trying to change the project name. When you analyze these media outlets, you see a significant difference between what is published and what the media committed to doing through the project,” Savić assesses.

As another issue, she highlights the financing of media through public procurement.

“Specifically, in Bačka Topola, the funds allocated for project co-financing of media projects over the years have been reduced to ten percent. The remaining amount has been redirected to various contracts based on public procurement,” Savić states.

Sava Majstorov from SOinfo in Sombor says that project co-financing in Sombor amounts to financing pro-regime media, while few media productions and organizations can hope for these funds.

“Moreover, this year’s competition has been reduced compared to the previous year, even by ten times, resulting in negligible funds in play. Only pro-regime media are the recipients of these funds, which regularly pertain to media financing. SOinfo is funded through international competitions, which are much simpler compared to domestic ones,” explains Majstorov.

The sixth training for local media on writing media projects was held in Subotica, organized by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

The workshop, led by Emil Holcer, 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 for international organizations.

The training was attended by representatives of the media, freelance journalists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations from Subotica, Sombor, and Bačka Topola. It was also an opportunity to exchange experiences regarding participation in this year's project co-financing process, specifically the competitions announced by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and local government bodies.

This is one of ten trainings that will be held by the end of the year in cities across Serbia.

The training was organized within the project of 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.