11. 02. 2014

ANEM DEMANDS ANNULMENT OF THE PUBLIC CONTEST FOR FINANCING AND CO-FINANCING OF MEDIA-RELATED PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS IN KOVIN

Belgrade, February 11, 2014 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) is strongly opposed to the realization of the Public Contest for Financing and Co-Financing of Media-Related Programs and Projects, which was announced at the session of the Municipal Council of Kovin held on 28 January 2014. The public contest is completely contradictory to the rules of project-based financing stipulated by the Strategy of Development of the Public Information System and it undermines the legal security and certainty in the process of allocation of funds to the local media for the purpose of advancing the public interest in the media.

First of all, it is entirely unacceptable that the deadlines for application are set from the day of publication of the announcement of the public contest on the website of the Municipality, since only the publication of the rules of the public contest in the official gazette of the city can provide the minimum of legal security and certainty regarding the deadlines.

The public contest also has other serious flaws, since the criteria and purpose of the allocation of funds have not been defined at all. The Rulebook on Parameters and Criteria for the Selection of Programs and Projects in the Field of Public Information explicitly defines the criteria and parameters for the selection of service providers in the field of public information to be financed and co-financed by the government, while the funding is provided for the purpose of reporting on the activities of the local self-government and the Municipal Administration of Kovin. This formulation clearly proves that the concepts of public procurement in the field of media services and the advancement of public interest in the field of public information have been misapplied. It defies belief that the public interest has been defined with regard to how "suitable" certain media outlets are to report on activities of the local self-government, which actually sends the message that local media outlets have to act as mouthpieces of the PR department of the local self-government. We remind that this is not in the interest of the public, which can only be related to the realization of clearly defined goals stated by the Media Strategy. During the last year, the local self-government of the City of Nis similarly abused the procedure and rules of public procurement and reduced the public interest in the field of public information to reporting on the activities of the mayor and other local self-government bodies, which was in direct violation of the Media Strategy. Aside from this, the criteria for the allocation of funds at the public contest organized by the Municipal Council of Kovin are completely unclear and arbitrary; it has not even been specified how much money is being allocated. For this reason, participants in the contest lack the information about what they are applying for, how much money will be spent and what their obligations would be if they win the public contest.

ANEM demands that the Public Contest be annulled and later organized in accordance with the criteria defined by the Media Strategy, especially having in mind significant formal and other flaws of the Contest. ANEM appeals on local self-governments to realize that the local media cannot function as their mouthpieces and that the public interest in the field of public information does not equal media reporting on activities of local self-governments. Apart from this, differences in the allocation of funding from budgets of local self-governments that is intended for public information is a direct consequence of the lack of a clear and transparent legal framework. For this reason, we call on the responsible authorities to expedite the adoption of the legislation that would eliminate differences in the implementation of the rules of project-based financing.

ANEM President, Milorad Tadic