Ministry Media Competitions – Money Exclusively in the Hands of Pro-Government Journalists’ and Media Associations
(Source: UNS) While numerous pro-government journalists’ and media associations received funding in this year’s media competitions organized by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, not a single project submitted by the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Media Association, Local Press, or the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) was supported.
This year, funding was also not awarded to the Journalists’ Union of Serbia (SINOS) or the Press Council.
On the other hand, the largest amount of funding went to the Niš Journalists’ Association (DNN) – 5,950,000 dinars, of which 2,400,000 dinars was awarded for media projects aimed at ethical and professional standards, 1,450,000 dinars for media content to be published in online media, and 2,100,000 dinars for media content in the languages of national minorities.
The Professional Journalists’ Association of Serbia (PROUNS) received 3,000,000 dinars for projects aimed at ethical and professional standards.
The newly established Association of Journalists of Serbia (ANS) was also supported with 1,300,000 dinars. This Association received 800,000 dinars in the competition for projects producing media content on the internet and 500,000 dinars for producing media content intended for people with disabilities.
It should be recalled that in mid-June last year, a group of 135 journalists, mostly from pro-government media outlets, signed an initiative to establish this new journalists’ association.
Immediately after its establishment, this association was invited to participate in working groups drafting two media laws and the Strategy for the Development of the Public Information System for the period from 2026 to 2030. It has now, on its first participation in the Ministry’s media competitions, been awarded more than one million dinars.
Previously, ANS also received funding in competitions organized by the cities of Belgrade and Novi Sad (for media content production projects).
This year’s Ministry competitions also supported projects by the Association of Radio Stations “RAB Srbija” (with 2,400,000 dinars), the Association of Electronic Media Comnet (with 2,000,000 dinars), the Media Community of Serbia (with 1,800,000), the Vojvodina Journalists’ Association (1,560,000 dinars), the Association of Sports Journalists of Belgrade (with 1,200,000 dinars), and the Association of Sports Journalists of Pančevo (with 1,000,000 dinars).
The Association of Sports Journalists of Pančevo received funding for a project which, judging by its title, “World-Famous Yet Ours – Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Nikola Tesla and Bora Stanković,” appears to have no connection whatsoever with sports.
Incidentally, this is the first time that none of UNS’s projects have been supported in the Ministry’s competitions. One of the projects submitted by UNS was titled “Who Were the Chinese Journalists Killed in NATO’s Aggression and What Were They Reporting On?”
The same “fate” befell the Center for Media Professionalization and Media Literacy (CEPROM) and the media outlet Nova ekonomija, for which, likewise, not a single project was supported in the MIT competitions for the first time.
Media Record-Holders
When it comes to media companies, the single largest amount of funding in this year’s nine competitions went to the company VTV from Subotica, which was approved a total of 11,400,000 dinars for the implementation of media projects.
The record-holder for the number of individual projects supported in a single competition was the ZAPPLE Media Group, which had the largest number of projects supported in the MIT competition for co-financing media projects for online media – seven, each allocated 700,000 dinars. This means that the Zapple Media Group received a total of 4,900,000 dinars for the implementation of its projects.
Individually, the largest amount awarded to a project in a single competition went to the Dnevnik Vojvodina Pres project, which was allocated five million dinars.
Year of Artificial Intelligence
The funding decision for the competition for media projects aimed at ethical and professional standards shows that more than half of the projects submitted in this competition (15 out of 28) deal with technological innovations and the media. The topic of artificial intelligence stands out in particular.
Thus, the Niš Journalists’ Association, the journalists’ association that received the most money in this year’s MIT competitions, was supported for a project examining whether artificial intelligence is a revolution or a threat.
Radio-Television Kruševac, which also received funding for an AI-related project last year, this time received 2,200,000 dinars for the project “Can We Hear Each Other? (The Future of Radio – Transformation from the ‘Main Source of Information’ to the Fight Against Algorithms).”
Paradoxically, in a year in which AI-related projects dominated the competitions, the Press Council – the self-regulatory body whose decisions are one of the criteria for evaluating projects – did not receive funding this time for a project aimed at developing guidelines for the ethical use of artificial intelligence.