The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) said that there has been no progress in terms of co-financing for media projects in Serbia this year.
A press release said that the authorities have slightly increased the money for media projects but added that the money will not be used to meet the public interest.
ANEM warned that the main problem in allocating funds for media projects is the composition of the commissions deciding the allocation of funds as well as the distribution of budget funds.
“This year’s candidate scoring process saw media experts and candidates from journalistic and media associations close to the authorities receiving the highest scores, while representatives of relevant media and journalistic associations were largely sidelined. Even when selected for commissions, they often found themselves in the minority, thus their project scoring had little impact on the final distribution,” it said.
“Relevant journalistic and media associations closely monitored the project co-financing process this year as well, but unfortunately, as in previous years, the positions, appeals, and reactions of these associations regarding irregularities mostly had no effect. Poor technical solutions have allowed, whether accidentally or intentionally, for the transparency of this process to remain at a low level, complicated by long procedures, additional documentation, hidden changes to data, dates, and documentation, weak communication with technical support, and overall, it can be freely said, harassment of all participants in the process,” it said.
Source: N1
