Zaple Media Group has registered another local portal - Puls Vrbasa.

As with the previous 12 established this year and two additional ones purchased, the editor-in-chief and responsible editor of this Vrbasa media outlet is Gradimir Banković, a collaborator of the Center for Social Stability.

To recap, the company Zaple Media Group was registered in December of last year, and since January 1 of this year, it has established the portals Snaga juga, "Nekad i sad", "Nekad i sad info", "Pre i posle info", "Pre-i-posle", Stara Pazova uživo, Nova Pazova uživo, Podunavlje uživo, Srbija na istoku, Palanačke vesti, Glas Aranđelovca, and Lučani uživo.

In parallel, the company also acquired two existing local portals – Užice Oglasna tabla and Drina info from Bajina Bašta.

Already in the first months of existence of most of these media outlets, the Complaints Commission of the Press Council made decisions in 11 cases that the content of their publications violated the Code of Journalists of Serbia, specifically on the portals Užice Oglasna tabla, Lučani uživo, Drina info, Palanačke vesti, Glas Aranđelovca, Stara Pazova uživo, Nova Pazova uživo, Srbija na istoku, and Podunavlje uživo.

The owner of the Novi Sad company that publishes these portals is Milica Lainović, and the director is Gradimir Banković, who is also the editor-in-chief and responsible editor of all 15 media outlets.

This year, in the competitions for project co-financing of media content that have been completed so far, this company has received a total of 18.6 million dinars or approximately 158,000 euros, according to an analysis by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

The projects of this company have received support in Užice, Požega, Vojvodina, Aranđelovac, Majdanpek, Aleksinac, Bajina Bašta, Stara Pazova, and from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications' competition for internet media, where they received co-financing for seven projects totaling 4.9 million dinars.

Their sites supported include Užice Oglasna tabla, Drina info, Stara Pazova uživo, Srbija na istoku, Glas Aranđelovca, Snaga juga, and Palanačke vesti, most of which existed for only a few weeks or months at the time of the competition announcement.

Gradimir Banković, in the past year and a half, has appeared in the media analyzing social issues and the situation in the country as a representative of the Center for Social Stability, where he was listed as a "collaborator" on their website. This non-governmental organization is known for organizing last year's counter-mitigations, which were attended by state leadership.

The Center for Social Stability has produced several films targeting dissenters of the government, including "(De)blokada" and "Dosije NVO", which aired on cable and national frequency television as well as on social media. At the beginning of the year, a piece titled "Zlo doba 2" was broadcast, targeting Veran Matić, the chairman of the ANEM Board and a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, aired on the channels Prva, B92, Informer, and Dokumentarna TV, which broadcasts its program without being registered as a media outlet or having a REM license.

Banković is also the owner and director of the company Elementum Media doo from Novi Sad, registered for the production and broadcasting of television programs, and at the same time serves as the legal representative of the association "Kogitatum centar", which received funding from the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2021 through a competition aimed at the civil sector.

Source: ANEM