Surdulica will not announce a media competition for 2025; it will distribute funds through "special programs."

She adds that contracts have been signed with the media that received funding in the competition for the year 2024 and that the disbursement is currently underway.

“For the next year, we have allocated funds, and as soon as we adopt the budget, conditions will be created for announcing the competition for project co-financing of media content, which we plan to publish on February 2nd,” states the president of the municipality of Surdulica.

Attorney Kruna Savović, on the other hand, asserts that the Law on Public Information and Media is explicit regarding how the Republic of Serbia, autonomous provinces, and local self-government units should allocate budget funds intended for achieving the public interest in the field of public information.

“The law states that funds are allocated through public competitions and individual grants. Failing to announce a public competition for achieving the public interest in the field of public information entails criminal liability, with the prescribed fine for the responsible person in a public authority ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 dinars,” explains Savović.

She reminds that the Law on Public Information and Media does not stipulate any "programs" as a means to circumvent the established procedure. According to her, it is assumed that this refers to programs defined by the Law on the Budget System, which cannot serve as a substitute for competitions.

The project of the Association of Independent Electronic Media “Participatory Monitoring of the Implementation of Project Co-Financing” 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.