Tag: Serbia

Public Money for the Public Interest – supporting a civil society initiative for the public interest

BIRN Serbia

Donor: The Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia.

Main Objective:

The creation of conditions that enable a free and pluralistic media to work in the public interest

Specific Objectives:

For civil society to succeed in influencing changes in media financing policies to reflect the rights and interests of citizens.

Main Activities:

A1: Capacity development for civil society
A2: Improvement of the media’s normative framework and practices
A3: Awareness-raising

Target Groups:

CSOs (app. 30), Local self-governments (10 LSGs), Decision-makers at national level (approx. 10 – Ministry of Culture and Information, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Self-government, Parliamentary Board for Culture and Information, MP’s etc.), Influencers (approx. 30 – professional associations, such as Lokal Press, ANEM, UNS, expert community, independent controlling institutions (Ombudsman, Commissioner for Access to Information of Public Importance, State Audit institution, Commission for Protection of Competition, Public Procurement Office, Commission for State Aid Control, etc.), EU Delegation, OSCE media department, international watchdog organizations, journalists (approx. 30)

Sports Bag without Bottom: Research on Budgetary Spending in Sport

BIRN Serbia – past programme

Since 2009 under the umbrella of “Eye on Public Finances” programme, BIRN Serbia is conducting several projects related to public spending and monitoring of transparency of public finances.

Summary

Over the years, BIRN Serbia has developed specific methodology in tracking budgetary spending by combining media reporting and advocacy activities. Accessing the data on public spending using the provisions of FOI law, BIRN is launching investigative journalistic reporting which then drives other advocacy and watchdog actions.

The same methodology will be applied again, in conducting the research on budgetary financing of sport. BIRN will take closer look into these budgetary practices, on both national and local level, particularly on financing of sport clubs and sport associations. Besides two journalists working in BIRN Serbia, in this project 4 external journalists will be engaged, covering the field work in South, Southwest Serbia and Vojvodina.

Series of at least five investigative articles will be published on BIRN’s platforms, javno.rs and Balkan Insight, while promotion will be organized via social networks. Articles will be offered to national and local media for republishing and initiating their own stories and reports.

It expected that project contributes to increase of public knowledge on sport financing and that it will provoke the reaction of authorities to make improvements of the future practices.   

The project is financed by The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and supported by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
 
Overall goal of this project is put spotlight and introduce public to practices of budgetary spending in sport and sport clubs, on both national and local level.
 
Specific Objectives:
 
  • Contribute to transparency of public finances through mapping the mechanisms of budgetary spending in sport
  • Uplift the quality of media production by publishing and promoting series of investigative articles via Internet platforms and social networks
  • Raise awareness of public and provoke reaction of the authorities introducing them to budgetary practices and possible corruption cases in the financing of sport.

Main Activities:

 
  • Production of investigative articles, which encompasses formation of journalistic team, gathering of documentation (using FOI law), analyses of data and documents, writing storis, editorial and publishing on BIRN web platforms.
  • Promotion of investigative articles, which includes publishing on javno.rs and other BIRN platforms and promotion on BIRN’s Facebook and Tweeter official accounts. Articles will be offered to other media outlets for republishing and initiating their own stories.

Target Groups:

 
  • Public administration / Ministries,
  • local self-governments,
  • sport clubs and sport associations;
  • media, journalists, media organizations;
  • broader public.

Enhancing Media Independence through Development of Sustainable and Competitive Financing Model

BIRN Serbia – past programme

Proposed project works towards development of non-discriminatory, consistent and transparent model for financing media production in order to enable citizens to exercise their right to complete, timely and objective information.

Summary

According to the Media Strategy and Law on Public Information and Media, public funds should be allocated to the media outlets only through the open call procedure which is opposite to the current practice based on which majority of funds for media are allocated directly (73%), while smaller portion is allocated based on the open calls for projects and through tenders (17%).

BIRN will conduct the research on the current practice of media financing through projects, resulting in development of recommendations for optimal model to be applied, as well as for the monitoring and evaluation of the future practice. Follow up advocacy meetings will enable broad public and stakeholders understanding of the proposed measures, and eventually their buy in for application of standards developed through this project.

Overall aim of the project is to contribute to the protection of public interest through provision of independent and quality media production and more transparent public spending.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
 
Overall goal of this project is to protect public interest through provision of independent and quality media production and more transparent public spending.
 
Specific Objectives:
 
Specific goal is to develop non-discriminatory, consistent and transparent system of financing media production through project financing.

This goals will be reached through analysis of current practice of project financing, developing set of recommendations for programme financing and advocating for its future implementation as planned by new Law on public information.

Main Activities:

 
  • Conduct research on current practice of media project financing through: 1) documentary research od administrative practices, rules, legal regulations and procedures, 2) content analysis of programs co-financed by republican Ministry of Culture and Public Information, Vojvodina Secretariat of Culture and Information and selected local self-governments and 3) questionnaires among media which were selected for financing
  • Production of the Analysis on project financing practice and recommendations for the future reference.
  • Organization of five round tables that will gather all stakeholders - media professionals, representatives of media outlets and public institutions, media law practitioners, international institutions and students of various faculties for journalism, media or communication. Round tables will be organized at Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Pazar
  • Promotion and dissemination of the Analysis- electronic version of the Analysis will be disseminated among relevant public national and regional institutions as well as all LSGs, media outlets, CSOs and international institutions. Besides, the Analysis will be published in PDF format on BIRN and Media Coalition websites and printed in 100 samples to be disseminated to the participants of Round table.

Target Groups:

 
  • Public administration / Ministries,
  • Vojvodina Secretariat,
  • local self-governments;
  • media, journalists, media organizations;
  • broader public.

Highlights:

 
First Analytical Report dedicated to media project financing ever published in Serbia.

Transparent, Effective and Accountable Spending of Public Finances in Media Sector

BIRN Serbia – past programme

Most of public funds that reach Serbia’s media are distributed arbitrarily and in a nontransparent manner, without clear and measurable criteria, public procedures, or controls. The most prominent forms of state intervention in the media sector are instrumental in translating financial power of state bodies and organizations into political influence on media content. They effectively function as indirect, soft censorship. Due to a poorly regulated media system, full knowledge of the manner and extent of state funding to various media outlets is unknown to the public. There are no reliable data on either the total amount of public money spent in the media industry, the sources and forms of funding, the purpose of such public spending, or its impact.

Summary

In 2012, BIRN made a pioneer attempt to shed some light and put under public eye practices f budgetary spending in media sector. BIRNs research, conducted on the sample of 33 cities and municipalities in Serbia, demonstrated that almost 80% of all public funds at the local level are allocated to the state owned media outlets. The same research also demonstrated that key condition to receive the funds is to report about activities of local self-governments and local public enterprises.

Being in line with the latest developments in the Serbian media sector and recognizing the importance of implementation of Media Strategy and consequent action plans, BIRN is proposing this project particularly focusing on the aspect of state funding of the media.

The proposed project will provide in-depth look into the current practice of the media project financing and propose ways for its improvement, as the sustainable financing is important precondition for media freedoms and media development.

NUNS (Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia) and CUPS (Centre for Advancement of Legal Studies).

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
 
  • Overall goal of this project is to contribute to more transparent, accountable and uniform spending of budgetary money for media and public informing.

Specific Objectives:

 
With Serbia lacking consolidated and open data on budgetary spending in media sector, specific goal of this project is to gather (using the FOI law), analyse and publish relevant data mapping mechanisms of budgetary spending directed toward media outlets in 2012 and 2013.

Based on research, set of recommendations how to improve budgetary financing of media will be composed and advocated toward national and local governments.

Main Activities:

 
  • Conduct research on current practice of media financing through: 1) documentary research od administrative practices, rules, legal regulations and procedures, 2) tracking budgetary spending toward media in local self-governments, Ministries and public enterprises, using competencies of Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance
  • Production of the Analysis on budgetary financing practice and recommendations for the future reference.
  • Promotion and dissemination of the Analysis: electronic version of the Analysis will be disseminated among relevant public national and local institutions, media outlets, CSOs and international institutions. Besides, the Analysis will be presented on series of meetings BIRN will organize with relevant stakeholders.
  • In cooperation with NUNS and CUPS, BIRN will present Analysis on three round tables, which NUNS will organize in Belgrade, Sombor and Vranje

Target Groups:

 
  • Public administration / Ministries, local self-governments, public enterprises;
  • media, journalists, media organizations;
  • broader public.

Open data for Open Government

BIRN Serbia – past programme

The aim of the project is to empower Open Data concept in Serbia and to enable media, CSO and expert community to use hard facts related to public expenditures in innovative and value-added ways, reinforcing their watchdog role.

Summary

The project aims to support the investigative journalists with financial support and providing a room for publishing the stories.  The Project is part of the USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia and is implemented in partnership with Center for Civil Communications, Senter for investigative journalism - SCOOP Macedonia, TV magazine KOD and daily newspaper KOHA.

The project which was launched in December 2012 has several different elements including fostering links between journalists and NGOs, training of NGO representatives, supporting the journalists to investigate and publishing their stories.

Macedonia’s media are troubled with many challenges. Closure of independent and critical media, increasing pressure and control of the government over numerous media outlets and rising trend of self-censorship have led to a journalism guided by political and business interests of media owners, limited space for objective reporting and have almost wiped out investigative reporting. At the same time, professional journalism standards are largely ignored.

With this project BIRN Macedonia promotes and tries to strengthen the relation between the media and NGOs by detecting the priority issues of common interest. Ten debates with different topic between journalists and NGOs are included. The goal is the participants to detect the topics that need to be challenged.

BIRN Macedonia supports the investigative journalism by opening eight calls for investigative stories. About 40 journalists will be awarded with financial support for in-depth investigation on specific topic. The selected journalists will be provided with mentors from BIRN and partner organizations staff who will guide the journalists through the investigative process.

The Project provides publishing the stories written by the selected journalists on a separate web site designed for the Project but also on other media. The web site will not serve only for publishing the stories but also as a data base of NGOs and experts in various fields so the journalists and NGO representatives can check the needed information and contacts.

BIRN Macedonia together with its partners will provide training and expertise for the NGOs and media through 10 workshops so they create common language, but also to train the NGOs to get bigger visibility in the media.

Together with the KOD TV magazine 12 investigative programs will be created in the framework of the Project.

The project was initiated by BIRN Macedonia in 2012 and was supported by USAID.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
 
  • To bridge the current gap between journalists and non-governmental organizations on issues of public interest
  • To build operational and efficient partnerships between CSOs and media as base for more objective journalism, and more informed public.

Specific Objectives:

 
  • Establish partnership relations between media and CSOs that will enable a long- term cooperation, instead of one-off contacts on issues of public interest. Currently media tend to ignore or use the work of CSOs selectively, thus depriving the public of the big picture. At the same time, both media and CSO’s have not forged any strong ties or cooperation.
  • Achieve greater visibility of the work of CSOs and in turn greater media legitimacy; design a line of communication between media and CSOs, so CSOs can arm journalists with necessary reporting information in public interest helping their professional, fact-based, and objective information, resulting in more professional journalistic stories.
  • Support public interest journalism; By improving journalists’ skills, capacities, tools, information and offering financial resources for in depth and investigative reports, as well as room for publishing of their stories the project aims to create a pool of investigative journalists, create a web platform and contribute a significant number of reports on key issues.
  • Provide the public with better and more substantial information as base to make informed decisions (in their private lives, businesses and as members of the society), raise public awareness on key issues and stir debate.

Main Activities:

 
  • Detecting of media and CSOs common issues, through a series of public debates between journalists and CSOs representatives.
  • Research of the current media coverage of the detected common issues, through an in-depth monitoring of the way Macedonian media and journalists report those issues
  • Creating a common language for CSOs and media through 10 workshops for CSOs
  • Technical assistance to Macedonian journalists in reporting important issues on more professional, fact-based and objective way
  • Providing journalists and CSOs with a room for reporting for issues of common interest and for offering citizens important information to make right
  • Sharing information and news reporting materials with other Balkan countries

Target Groups:

 
  • Journalists and CSOs from Macedonia

Serbian Government Performance Evaluation

BIRN Serbia – past programme

Through its performance evaluation project, BIRN Serbia is working to establish an efficient and innovative watchdog tool for monitoring governments performance and accountability.

Summary

The project, which runs from March 2012-December 2012, aims to create a baseline for evaluating future governments' performance and accountability, while also raising public awareness of party programs and policies as they relate to electorate priorities.

In addition, the BIRN Serbia team works to strengthen the role of media and civil society in the exercise of its “watchdog” role.

As part of the project, BIRN Serbia is identifying citizens’ priorities and carrying out comparative analysis of political parties' proclaimed policies as they relate to citizens' priorities. The team is also developing performance monitoring techniques and a communication strategy.

The performance evaluation project targets the general public, civil society organisations, the expert community and media outlets. In connection with the project, BIRN Serbia produces a comparative analysis of political party programmes and election platforms.

BIRN Serbia is working in partnership with the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, CESID a Serbian NGO, on this project. It is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
 
  • BIRN Serbia is proposing a project aiming to establish efficient and innovative watchdog tool for monitoring of future government’s performance and accountability

Specific Objectives:

 
  • Baseline for evaluating future Government performance and its accountability
  • Raised public awareness on parties’ programs and policies related to the issues of electorate priority concerns
  • Strengthen the role of media and civil society to exercise its “watchdog” role

Main Activities:

 
  • Identifying citizens’ priorities
  • Comparative analyses of political parties proclaimed policies related to citizens priorities
  • Performance monitoring
  • Communication strategy

Target Groups:

 
  • General public
  • Civil Society Organisations
  • Expert community
  • Media

Highlights:

 
  • Comparative analysis of political parties programmes and election platforms

Participative Budgeting

BIRN Serbia – past programme

BIRN Serbia is introducing participatory budgeting in 25 municipalities in south and south-west Serbia in an effort to encourage citizen participation in the government budgeting process.

Summary

The project, which runs from January 2012- February 2013, aims to increase local governments' capacity to conduct participatory budgeting by providing the general conditions, methodology and measures for making the process sustainable.

The BIRN team also works to motivate citizens to take part in the budgeting process by rising awareness of their rights to participate in decision making processes and by equipping them with an understanding of the budget process.

In addition, the project aims to strengthen the capacity of media outlets and civil society organisations to perform their watchdog role by enhancing their knowledge and raising their expectations in relation to government accountability.

As part of the project, the BIRN team carries out budget analysis and performance assessment, as well as stakeholder analysis. Members form participatory budget committees, carry out workshops and develop action plans, while also lobbying and presenting to the Parliamentary Assembly.

Finally, the team carries out follow-up budget performance monitoring.

The target audience for the project, which operates on a budget of 100,000 euros, includes local governments and the general public. It is supported by the EU Progress Programme.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
 
  • To introduce participative budgeting in 25 municipalities in south and south-west Serbia

Specific Objectives:

 
  • To increase LSG capacity to conduct PB process by providing general preconditions, methodology and measures for making the process sustainable
  • To motivate citizens to take part in PB process by rising awareness on their rights to participate in decision making process and by equipping them with understanding of PBP
  • To strengthen capacities of media and CSO’s to perform its watchdog role by enhancing their knowledge and rising their expectations in relation to governments accountability

Main Activities:

 
  • Budget analyses and performance assessment
  • Stakeholder analyses
  • PB committee forming
  • Workshop and development of the action plan
  • PB implementation
  • Lobbying and presentation for the Parliamentary assembly
  • Follow-up - budget performance monitoring

Target Groups:

 
  • Local government
  • General public

Highlights:

 
  • Analysis of budget process in 25 targeted municipalities
  • Campaign
  • Budget message developed in up to 15 municipalities

Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD)

DONOR
The Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) is an initiative that supports democracy, good governance, and Euroatlantic integration in Southeastern Europe.

This award-winning public-private partnership was created in 2003 by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. BTD’s original ten-year mandate came to an end in May 2013. BTD then entered into its second mandate (2013-20) with structural changes to geographic coverage and grantmaking scope.

The Balkan Trust for Democracy operates with a small, experienced staff that actively seeks out and incorporates expertise from a wide variety of partners. These experts, along with GMF staff, make up the grantmaking committee that reviews proposals to ensure that BTD’s programs are effective, responsive to local needs, and complementary to other initiatives supported by the international community.

An Advisory Board of experts from Southeastern Europe and key international organisations guides the Balkan Trust for Democracy’s strategic development.

BTD is structured to allow both European and U.S. partners to join the effort to strengthen transatlantic cooperation in the Balkans. Since its founding, additional contributions from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belgrade, Compagnia di San Paolo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Robert Bosch Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and Tipping Point Foundation have made BTD a true transatlantic partnership.

Web: http://www.gmfus.org/program/balkan-trust-democracy

British Embassy – Serbia

DONOR
The British Embassy in Belgrade is the official representation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Serbia. It is responsible for developing and maintaining relations between the UK and Serbia.

The Embassy, in co-ordination and co-operation with other key international organisations and diplomatic missions, works with (national) governmental and non-governmental partners in managing a portfolio of strategic reform projects. These are aimed at assisting Serbia on her way towards EU membership and internal and regional stabilisation, as guided by the FCO’ strategic objectives and specific programme frameworks.

The British Embassy has supported BIRN Serbia activities for years, including most recently the Eye on Public Finances programme.

Web: http://ukinserbia.fco.gov.uk/en/

Executive Group

PARTNER
Executive Group is a leading integrated communications agency in Serbia and South East Europe. Executive Group handles corporate communications, digital, marketing and advertising, branding advisory and public affairs, and has won top international and domestic and awards for its work.

Executive Group serves the world’s leading brands and organisations across the most critical areas of communications. The company’s commitment to constant learning and innovation is aimed to produce cutting-edge solutions and world-class deliverables for the clients it serves across South East Europe.

Executive Group partners with BIRN Serbia on its Good Governance Campaign.

Web: www.eg.rs