Media and Journalists’ Associations Submit Proposal for Amendments to the Project Co-Financing Process to MIT

(Source: Javni servis) Five media associations and journalists’ organizations — the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS), Lokal Pres, and the Media Association — have agreed on a joint proposal to amend the process of project co-financing of media content and have officially submitted it to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications (MIT).

The proposals are the result of internal consultations with members of this year’s competition commissions, association representatives, and the Press Council. The aim is to improve the co-financing system, increase transparency, and eliminate abuses at all levels of government.

Key Proposals

Improving the Project Co-Financing Process

Limit each candidate to serving on no more than five competition commissions per year.
Introduce a rule preventing the same candidate from serving on the same commission at the national, provincial, or local level for two consecutive years.
Improve and make the evaluation of the entire process more transparent.
Introduce a mandatory final meeting of all commission members before forming the final proposal for the allocation of funds.
Require commission members to provide an explanation for each individual score given to submitted projects.
Determine the representativeness of authorized nominators based on criteria used in the selection of REM Council members.
Standardize commission members’ honoraria in line with MIT practice.
Publish the legally required Analysis of Necessary Media Content with every call for proposals.

Functioning of MIT’s Unified Information System (JIS)

Require MIT to collect user feedback on JIS to address technical issues before the next cycle.
Make all documentation published in JIS machine-readable.
Establish a searchable database of media projects (national, provincial, and local levels) to make it easier to review supported projects.
Create a searchable database of commission members, by name, to increase transparency.

Proposals Regarding the Scoring of Candidates for Commissions

Differentiate scoring between master’s and doctoral degrees.
Expand the scoring range for work experience (since 16 and 40 years of experience are currently valued equally).
Remove scoring for professional papers and professional events — due to frequent misuse.
Reduce the number of points awarded for academic papers and participation in academic conferences.
Eliminate the possibility of scoring for writing and implementing projects (due to the inability to reliably verify claims).
Abolish scoring for previous membership in competition commissions.

Proposal for Evaluating Media Projects

(also supported by the Press Council)

Media outlets that have received measures from REM or the Press Council should have points deducted, instead of receiving the original full score as before.

The proposal was signed by:
ANEM, UNS, Lokal Pres, NUNS, and the Media Association.