Transparency: Closure of Vranjske is bad news for the fight against corruption in Serbia

The organization Transparency Serbia assessed today that the closure of "Vranjske" is very bad news for the fight against corruption because, as assessed, this newspaper bravely tackled topics related to corruption, pointing out both individual cases and systemic problems. 

"Since there are certainly not many such media outlets in Serbia, the news that 'Vranjske' has ceased to be published is very bad for the fight against corruption as well," Transparency stated in its press release.

The organization recalls the articles of "Vranjske" concerning party financing, the affair related to the use of official vehicles for private purposes and a vehicle that a local public utility company receives for use (for its director) from a private company that wins contracts in Vranje, the article on local media tenders, and party employment in the local Tax Administration.

Transparency positively assesses the fact that the Government released data on funds paid to "Vranjske" from the budget, stating that it would be good if other data on the treatment of media were also publicly available – the number of inspections, advertising by public sector institutions, cases where media were denied access to requested data, debt forgiveness, or other forms of state aid. 

What would be completely wrong, as stated, is to distort the purpose of budget allocations to media, because project financing, according to the Law, is not, and should never be, "media financing," but financing of programs of public interest. 

"Therefore, the fact that 'Vranjske' received some money from the budget (or that some other media outlet received money) should not mean support for the media outlet, but support for the realization of a specific project. Whether newspapers are discriminated against in tenders can only be concluded from an analysis of tender decision-making data – whether funds were awarded to the best projects that met all conditions," Transparency stated. 

The editorial office of the now-closed weekly newspaper and internet portal "Vranjske" assessed today that the Serbian Government's statement on how much money their media outlet received from tenders is "hypocritical and cynical" and that in their case, it is precisely about attempts to stifle media freedom, free speech, or critical thinking, and not the opposite, as the Government claims.
The Serbian Government earlier today rejected claims that the case of the weekly "Vranjske" involves stifling media freedom, free speech, or critical thinking, and stated that the newspaper had received significant sums from republican and city authorities in the past period.

However, the newspaper states that in the same tender where "Vranjska plus" received 6.5 million dinars, the portal "Vranjskih" received 150,000 dinars, and the printed edition received nothing, even though it is the only weekly newspaper in the far southern part of Serbia, reports the Patria agency.