Extend the deadline and address the deficiencies in the application process for the competition of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) calls on the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to extend the deadline for submitting projects for the competition for project co-financing aimed at protecting and promoting the public interest in the media sector.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has announced competitions on February 1st, and they will be open until March 3, 2025, at midnight.
During the use of the Unified Information System (UIS), which began operation at the start of this year, a significant number of users encountered issues with the functionality of this platform. Some of these shortcomings and inconsistencies were only addressed after intervention by representatives of ANEM, journalists' associations, and media organizations. Unfortunately, even at this point, noticeable inconsistencies and shortcomings still exist in the operation of the long-awaited Unified Information Platform, for which nearly 84 million dinars (715 thousand euros) have been allocated from the budget.
Nearly two months after the start of applications for members of the commissions on the mentioned platform, it is still unknown who the registered candidates for the competition commissions are, nor how many points they received from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications based on the submitted biographies. This situation is already affecting the transparency of certain announced competitions by local governments, which have already passed the deadlines for applications for commission members. The application of a controversial scoring policy in evaluating the submitted biographies and changes to the criteria during the application process for commission members are not encouraging signs and are inconsistent with the optimistic statements and lack of self-criticism from the leaders of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications.
ANEM believes that the least the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications can do at this moment is to extend the deadline for project applications and make every effort to ensure that the Unified Information Platform becomes a true tool that will contribute to increasing the transparency and inclusiveness of the project co-financing process.
