Večernje novosti received more than 11 million dinars despite violating the Journalists' Code of Serbia

The News has so far received funding from the competitions of 12 local self-governments totaling 9,260,050 dinars. Reviewing the published decisions, it is not always clear whether it is for print or online editions. The most funding was awarded to them in Belgrade, for print and the website, amounting to 3,250,000 and 1,750,000 dinars, respectively, for a total of five million dinars.

In the competition in Kragujevac, this media outlet received one million dinars, in Loznica 600,000 dinars, 500,000 dinars each in Sremska Mitrovica and Zrenjanin, 400,000 dinars in Opovo, 300,000 dinars each in Kladovo and Bor, and 200,000 dinars each in Lapovo and Velika Plana. In Trstenik, Večernje novosti received 210,500 dinars in the competition, while in Rekovac they were awarded 50,000 dinars.

The same media outlet received 500,000 dinars in the competitions of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications for internet media, another 500,000 dinars for topics about persons with disabilities, and 1,120,000 dinars for printed media.

According to publicly available data from the Press Council, in the past 13 months, the Commission for Appeals of this self-regulatory body made decisions regarding violations of the Code of Journalists of Serbia on the portal Novosti.rs based on 15 received complaints, as well as one decision regarding a violation in the printed edition of Večernje novosti.

Although regular monitoring data on violations of the code by the Press Council are not considered in the scoring of projects, it should be noted that Večernje novosti committed as many as 549 violations in 443 texts in their printed edition in the second half of 2024.

The most drastic examples of funding allocation in competitions are recorded in Belgrade, which, in addition to awarding Novosti, granted Informer 10.5 million dinars for print, the website, and television, and the editorial board of Alo five million dinars. The Press Council has recorded code violations in the past 13 months based on 17 complaints regarding the Informer portal and one for the printed edition of the same media. In the case of the Alo portal, decisions on violations were made regarding 11 complaints during the same period, while for the newspaper, decisions were made on seven complaints.

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