{"id":19950,"date":"2016-10-07T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/zajecar-a-lot-more-money-provided-to-the-media-while-they-are-close-to-serbian-progressive-party-sns\/"},"modified":"2019-09-06T22:02:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T20:02:57","slug":"zajecar-a-lot-more-money-provided-to-the-media-while-they-are-close-to-serbian-progressive-party-sns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/zajecar-a-lot-more-money-provided-to-the-media-while-they-are-close-to-serbian-progressive-party-sns\/","title":{"rendered":"Zaje\u010dar: A lot more money provided to the media while they are close to Serbian Progressive Party (SNS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owing to the agreements signed with the city and the local institutions, TV Best<\/em> from Zaje\u010dar generated more than 147 million Serbian dinars of income since 2013, after Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> (SNS) came into power in this city. Nevertheless, they haven’t been airing the program since August, their accounts being blocked due to a debt higher than 21.6 million dinars.
\u00a0
The accounts of this regional TV station have been blocked several times during the last three years. However, TV Best <\/em>has been facing real problems after Sa\u0161a Mirkovi\u0107<\/strong> left SNS and resigned from the position of the president of the Zaje\u010dar City Assembly.
\u00a0
In public, Mirkovi\u0107 is known as a show business manager. Prior to joining SNS, he was a member of the Serbian Radical Party<\/em> while today he is announcing his candidacy for the president of Serbia. From 2011 to middle 2012, Sa\u0161a Mirkovi\u0107 was a member of the Board of Directors of TV Best<\/em>, while in the media he was often referred to as its real owner. Yet, he denied this in an interview with the\u00a0Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia<\/em>\u00a0(CINS).<\/p>

 <\/p>

\"Sa\u0161a<\/a>

It is mayor Ognjenovi\u0107, and not myself, who came into power after leaving the position of the director of Timo\u010dka Radio and TV station<\/em> (previous name of TV Best<\/em>).<\/p>

Photo: www.mc.rs<\/p>

Sa\u0161a Mirkovi\u0107<\/h2><\/div><\/div>

The formal owner of\u00a0TV Best<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0Danijela Vidosavljevi\u0107<\/strong>, while besides Mirkovi\u0107, several city officials were managing this TV station within the last few years, including Velimir Ognjenovi\u0107<\/strong>, current mayor of Zaje\u010dar.
\u00a0
In July 2013, Mirkovi\u0107 was elected President of the City Assembly, while a month later Ognjenovi\u0107 was appointed the mayor of Zaje\u010dar, both as SNS representatives. It is since the year mentioned that TV Best<\/em> started recording income increase deriving from the institutions’ budgets.
\u00a0
Data of Treasury Administration show that the income generated by this TV station from local self-governments and state institutions amounted to more than 42 million dinars in 2013. A year before they received less than 14.5 million dinars.
\u00a0
The payments made to TV Best<\/em>\u00a0kept rising, amounting to almost 44 million dinars in 2014, while 61 million dinars of budget funds were furnished to their account in 2015. In 2016 they were granted only 732,554 dinars.
\u00a0
Mirkovi\u0107 said that his appointment to the position of the Assembly president had nothing to do with the business activities of TV Best<\/em>, as he was the head of a legislative body that was not in charge of allocating money.
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“It is mayor Ognjenovi\u0107, and not myself, who came into power after leaving the position of the director of Timo\u010dka Radio and TV station<\/em> (previous name of TV Best<\/em>). Therefore, he is the executive authority in this city\u201c, said Mirkovi\u0107.
\u00a0
Ognjenovi\u0107 was appointed the mayor of Zaje\u010dar on 21 August 2013. Two days later he signed an agreement with TV Best<\/em> on allocation of 18 million dinars from the city budget to this TV station. At the time, he was still executive director of TV Best<\/em>, resigning from this position as late as on 16 September 2013.
\u00a0
Ognjenovi\u0107, still in his capacity of mayor, refused to talk on this topic with CINS journalists.
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Mirkovi\u0107 is no longer the president of the City Assembly of Zaje\u010dar. At the end of 2015 he came into conflict with SNS, thereafter leaving the party. This is when TV Best\u00a0started facing hardships. An investigation and judicial proceedings are currently conducted against TV Best<\/em>, while in September this year the Regulatory Authority of Electronic Media<\/em> initiated a procedure for revoking their broadcasting license.\u00a0<\/p>


Millions granted by local institutions<\/h2>

\u00a0
In February 2016, 13 workers of the Veterinary Specialist Institute “Zaje\u010dar<\/em>”\u00a0went on strike requesting dismissal of the director Miodrag Nikoli\u0107<\/strong> on the grounds of his irresponsible conduct in managing the Institute, reflected also in \u201cgranting millions of dinars to\u00a0TV Best<\/em>\u201c. They say that, despite investing into commercials, fewer contracts were signed during that period, so the Institute had no benefits from these investments.
\u00a0
Previously, Nikoli\u0107 was a member of the TV Best<\/em> Board of Directors. Prior to his appointment as the Institute director in 2013, the Institute had signed no TV commercial contracts with this TV station. Shortly thereafter they started scheduling TV spots and guest appearances.
\u00a0
The first contract concluded in July 2013 between the Institute and TV Best<\/em>, was signed by Nikoli\u0107 himself, although at that moment he was still a member of the TV Best<\/em> management. On behalf of TV Best<\/em> the contract was signed by Velimir Ognjenovi\u0107<\/strong>, later appointed the mayor of Zaje\u010dar.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Public officials and TV Best<\/h2>\"Public<\/a>

Besides\u00a0Sa\u0161a Mirkovi\u0107<\/strong> and\u00a0Velimir Ognjenovi\u0107<\/strong>, other SNS officials were also members of TV Best<\/em> management teams. Vladan Paunovi\u0107<\/strong>, this party’s commissioner in Zaje\u010dar and a previous councilor, served as a director of TV Best<\/em> between 2010 and 2012. He was replaced by Ognjenovi\u0107 who remained in this position until September 2013. Just one month before that, Ognjenovi\u0107 was appointed a mayor. Ognjenovi\u0107’s current assistant in the field of culture and media is Suzana Stamenkovi\u0107<\/strong>, former editor-in-chief of this TV station.<\/p><\/div>

Nikoli\u0107, still in his capacity of the Institute director, did not want to comment his employees’ statements or discuss the contracts, until the Prosecutor’s Office in Zaje\u010dar brings to an end the investigation based on criminal charges filed by the employees.
\u00a0
With SNS coming into power, higher amounts of money were being granted to TV Best<\/em>\u00a0by local institutions such as Special Rehabilitation Hospital Gamzigrad<\/em>, Health Center, Pharmacy Zaje\u010dar<\/em>, \u00a0CEKIT – Cultural Center <\/em>of Zaje\u010dar,\u00a0Timo\u010dka krajina Theatre “Zoran Radmilovi\u0107<\/em>“,\u00a0Technical Faculty<\/em> in Bor,\u00a0National Museum Zaje\u010dar<\/em>,\u00a0Sports Center<\/em>, and by other local institutions.
\u00a0
CEKIT – Cultural Center<\/em> of Zaje\u010dar was founded in 2013. Since September 2014, their account was blocked 12 times, yet they didn’t consider it a barrier to make payments to TV Best.
\u00a0
Through a public procurement procedure, CEKIT paid almost half a million dinars for broadcasting the concerts of Marija \u0160erifovi\u0107<\/strong> and \u017deljko Joksimovi\u0107<\/strong>, on the occasion of a 2015 New Year’s Eve celebration. In 2015, CEKIT awarded\u00a0TV Best<\/em>\u00a0with a job worth 3.3 million dinars, i.e. the celebration of the Day of the City, including the concert given by Aca Lukas<\/strong>.
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By the time of writing this story, no TV commercial contracts in 2016 have been signed between the Veterinary Institute<\/em>, CEKIT, National Museum<\/em>, Sports Center<\/em> and other institutions on one side and TV Best<\/em> on the other side.
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The Pharmacy Zaje\u010dar<\/em> have informed CINS journalists that their advertising activities have been increased since 2013 as they were exposed to \u201caggressive advertising of private pharmacies in local media\u201c, followed by a significant drop in sales\u201c. In 2016 Pharmacy Zaje\u010dar<\/em> granted no money to the media for advertising purposes.
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Besides receiving money from local institutions and establishments, in the course of 2013 TV Best <\/em>was also granted 473,050 dinars by the Ministry of Culture and Information. \u00a0
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Based on a sole public competition for financing the media conducted by the city of Zaje\u010dar in 2015, pursuant to the rules of the new Law on Public Information and Media, TV Best<\/em>\u00a0was awarded 18.8 million dinars, out of the total amount of 38 million dinars divided among 11 media outlets. According to the findings of the media coalition in charge of monitoring media competitions, only two TV stations in Serbia were allocated more than 18.8 million dinars at the competitions conducted within the last year. This year, the city of Zaje\u010dar hasn’t yet allotted the money intended for the media, as the competition was announced at end of June.
\u00a0
During the last year, TV Best\u00a0<\/em>participated in two more media public competitions: in Negotin and in Bor, being awarded 2 million dinars, namely 1.2 million dinars respectively. \u00a0

Although the Law on Public Information envisages that the funds from the budgets of local self-governments can be allocated to media primarily through competitions, this rule was not observed in case of a contract signed between the TV Best<\/em> and the city to the amount of 17 million dinars, for the project on informing about environment. \u00a0

The City mayor Ognjenovi\u0107 agreed for this contract to be signed a day after TV Best<\/em> had submitted a request for allocation of funds.

Last December, at the time when Mirkovi\u0107 parted ways with SNS, the police entered into the premises of TV Best<\/em>. This was ordered by the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime that requested \u201cexemption of the documentation pertaining to investigation on potential corruption.\u201c The case was transferred to Senior Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zaje\u010dar.

In January this year, the city of Zaje\u010dar filed a lawsuit against TV Best<\/em> at the Commercial Court in Zaje\u010dar due to a debt of 16 million dinars. The City Attorney’s Office initiated a procedure for collection of 7.5 million dinars. None of these two disputes have been settled.<\/p>

 <\/p>


Informing per suggestions of the city<\/h2>

 <\/p>

\"\"<\/a>

Du\u0161an Firovi\u0107, member of the City Council in Zaje\u010dar<\/p>

Photo: www.zajecar.info<\/p><\/div>

Another media outlet connected with an SNS official in Zaje\u010dar, has recorded income increase since the time this party came into power.
\u00a0
In August 2013, only a day after an SNS official Du\u0161an Firovi\u0107<\/strong> was elected a member of the Zaje\u010dar City Council, F Kanal<\/em>, a company owned by his son Sa\u0161a<\/strong>, was allocated 6.5 million dinars for purposes of media reporting. Previous year, with Firovi\u0107 not being a member of the City Council, the amount granted by the city to F Kanal<\/em>\u00a0was three times smaller \u2013 about 2.2 million dinars.

The agreement, signed by the city mayor Ognjenovi\u0107, specifies that, although F Kanal<\/em> is entitled to direct their editorial policy, \u201cin the broadcasts covered by the agreement they have to observe and accept the information volume and the method of their provision suggested by the city of Zaje\u010dar\u201c.
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During 2013 and 2014 Radio and TV Station F Kanal<\/em> was paid for commercials by the Zaje\u010dar based institutions and establishments as well, including Cultural Center<\/em>, Technical Faculty<\/em> in Bor, Pharmacy Zaje\u010dar<\/em>, Zoran Radmilovi\u0107\u00a0Foundation<\/em> and others. \u00a0

Including the money granted by the city, F Kanal<\/em> received over 9.2 million dinars during 2013. In 2014, they received somewhat more than 7.3 million dinars in payments, of which 2.6 million dinars were granted by the City Council pursuant to media competition.
\u00a0
Based on a 2015 media public competition, F Kanal<\/em> was allocated 3.5 million dinars for informing the citizens on the work of the city administration. In the same year, as already reported by the CINS, they were granted another 1.5 million dinars for reporting on ecology issues, this transaction not being covered by the competition.\u00a0<\/p>

 <\/p>

Since the moment\u00a0Du\u0161an Firovi\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0came into power,\u00a0F Kanal<\/em>\u00a0was allocated 18 million dinars only by the City of Zaje\u010dar. In 2013 and 2014, as a member of the City Council, he had directly influenced the decision to allocate the city budget funds to his son’s company. However, he did not inform the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em> on possible conflict of interests in this case.<\/p>

 <\/p>

Public interest or regular business operations?<\/h2>

Within its project proposal submitted pursuant to a 2015 media competition conducted by the city of Zaje\u010dar, TV Best<\/em>\u00a0specified that their main activities are directed towards providing timely information on the work of the city administration, which is actually covered by the scope of their business. \u00a0

Petar Jeremi\u0107<\/strong> and Radomir Iri\u0107<\/strong>, members of the committee that was in charge of allocation of the funds, noted that the project submitted by TV Best<\/em> was not on such a level as to guarantee that the public interests of the citizens will be met. As for future competitions, their recommendation is to \u201cpay more attention to meeting public interests of the citizens, than to simple provision of information on the work of city administration\u201c. They requested inclusion of the above statement into the Minutes.

Jeremi\u0107 and Iri\u0107 also said that, out of the same reasons, the project drafted by F Kanal<\/em>, on reporting on the city administration activities, does not guarantee that the public interest will be met.<\/p><\/div>

Upon a denunciation and the proceedings conducted, in 2014 the Agency made a recommendation to dismiss Firovi\u0107 from the position of the City Council member as it was his duty “not to participate in awarding decisions based on which budget funds were transferred to the company owned by his son.\u201c
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It took the mayor Velimir Ognjenovi\u0107 two years to submit a proposal to the City Assembly to initiate discussions on possible dismissal.
\u00a0
As per findings of the Anti-Corruption Agency<\/em>, Firovi\u0107 has violated the law, but in April this year the councilmen voted against the proposal for his dismissal \u2013 27 were against, while only three of them voted for the dismissal. Three ballot papers were invalid.
\u00a0
Du\u0161an Firovi\u0107\u00a0refused to talk to the CINS journalists, while his son Sa\u0161a said that his father’s position has nothing to do with the money allocated to F Kanal<\/em>.
\u00a0
“I am running a private company, while his business activities are different. We do not live together, and I can say that our mutual relations are not too good, so that he is not interested in any of my business deals “, said\u00a0Sa\u0161a Firovi\u0107.
\u00a0\u00a0
At the end of June 2016, Du\u0161an Firovi\u0107\u00a0informed the Agency that he had submitted a request for exemption from the City Council session the agenda of which includes decision on allocation of budget funds, as his son’s company is to participate in the competition. The Agency notified CINS that, by doing this, he eliminated potential conflict of interest.<\/p>

 <\/p>

The story has been produced under an EU funded grant, awarded in the Media Programme 2014. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the EU.
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TV Best and F Kanal, media connected with SNS officials from Zaje\u010dar, were granted significantly higher amounts of budget funds during the last several years, than in the period when these officials were not in power. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1341,"featured_media":16468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1578,1492,1573],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financing-the-media","category-investigative-stories","category-political-parties","ciTrackContent"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/1475750372~~Ilustracija-Zajecar.png","author_additional":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22337,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19950\/revisions\/22337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}