Media Study - Medija centar Beograd

80 million Dinars (approx. 0.8 million EUR) were allocated to a specific program on media projects to counter the
financial crisis. The amount includes salaries, public interest programs, and quality content.
The Ministry allocated 332 million Dinars (approx. 3.3 million EUR), to different institutions, including the following:
TANJUG news agency: 153 million
Radio Yugoslavia: 94 million
Jugoslovenski pregled (translation service for official documents): 8.5 million
Jedinstvo: 29 million (a publication from Mitrovica with 6.000 weekly copies for enclaves in
Kosovo
Etc.
For 2010, the Ministry of Culture budgets expenses of
108.5 million Dinars for program financing, incl. media literacy program
385 million Dinars for state subsidies.
Thus, the overall yearly budget for public funded media allocated by the Ministry of Culture amounts to
approximately 5 million EUR.
Funding of Municipal Media
Spending by the municipalities and local governments on public media support is also not accessible information. A
major contribution goes to Studio B. According to information from the top management and as stated in the
2009 Annual Report, the annual budget of ca 2.3 million EUR receives a contribution of 55 to 60% (1.2 million EUR)
from the City of Belgrade.
Interviews indicate that the local NIŠ TV operates on an annual budget of 0.6 to 0.7 million EUR, out of which ca
45% consists of various grants from the local government (0.3 million EUR). Radio and TV in Kragujevac spends 80
million Dinars (approx. 0.8 million EUR) per year, and receives approx. 60% (0.5 million EUR) from public sources.
Based on these data for the three largest cities (with the exception of Novi Sad which is hosting the license fee
financed RTV) one can estimate that the overall annual funding from local governments and municipalities to the
remaining non-privatized public media services would in total for Serbia largely be within 5 million EUR.
Funding of minority language media
An account of total public support for national minority languages media is not available, since this derives from
various sources: National Minority Councils, municipalities, provincial government (Vojvodina), national
government, including respective countries of origin. This support is channeled to a very diverse spectrum of media
and publishing houses 63 .
The Vojvodina Province constitutes a slightly different case. Based on the Law on Minority Councils and decisions
by the Parliament, the print media published in minority languages receive an amount of ca 12 million EUR per
year. In addition, more than 3 million EUR are spent in accordance with a policy of the Government of Province
Vojvodina and its Secretariat for Information to support electronic and print media in general in the Province. The
distribution of this money is indicated in the table below:
63 Information is fragmented, e.g. the largest national minority community – Hungarian – is spending (partly covered through the budget of
Vojvodina Province) approx. 90 mio Dinars to dailies with circulation of ca 20.000 copies, to Radio Subotica ca 50 mio, 20 mio towards other
media support, thus all together approx. 160 million Dinars yearly (approx. 1.6 million EUR). Slovak national minority language weekly with
circulation of 5.000 has a yearly budget of 10 mio Dinars, covered by 70% by the provincial budget.
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