22. 07. 2015

The Head of the Municipal PR Department may not be member of the Commission for the Allocation of Funds

Belgrade, July 22, 2015 - The Coalition of Journalist and Media Associations believes that the decision of the Municipality of Prokuplje to establish a competition commission for assessing the project for the realization of public interest in the field of the media, adopted on July 13, is not in accordance with the Rulebook of the Ministry of Culture and Media.

We remind that under Article 20 of the said Rulebook, eligible for appointment in the competition commission are persons that are independent media experts or media professionals, which must not be in a conflict of interest or occupy public office. We hereby want to point to the fact that the Head of the Public Relations Department of the Municipality of Prokuplje has been appointed to the commission, which is in contravention of the aforementioned Article of the Rulebook of the Ministry of Culture and Media.

We call on the competent bodies of the Municipality of Prokuplje to revise the decision on establishing the competition commission and conform it to the provisions of the Rulebook.

Furthermore, we remind that the Coalition of Journalist and Media Associations didn't propose its candidates for membership in the commission in Prokuplje, as the local administration refused to remedy the irregularities in the competitions that had been promptly identified by the Coalition.

We want to stress that the Coalition of Journalist and Media Associations is carrying out a comprehensive monitoring of the enforcement of media laws and the activity of independent commissions for the co-financing of media project in accordance with public interest.

The Coalition consists of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina, the Association of Independent Electronic Media and PU "Lokal pres".

UNS, NUNS, NDNV, ANEM and PU ‘'Lokal pres''