Conduct public debate regarding topics of public interest (RS0054)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The Law on Public Information and Media determines the basic criteria for the evaluation of projects submitted in the announced public calls for co-financing media content from budget funds, and also prescribes that more detailed criteria are published within each public call. In accordance with that, among other things, public calls, as a rule, contain topics that are of primary importance in the period of announcing a certain call, as well as in a certain geographical area for which the call is announced. However, in practice, such legal solutions have led to the fact that bodies that allocate budget funds either just take over the definition of public interest from the Law, without prioritizing certain topics, or arbitrarily set priorities without prior consultation with citizens of the community in whose area the public interest is realized through supported media content. In that way, citizens remain deprived of the opportunity to express their needs in relation to the desired media content, but also the chance to participate in some way in the decision-making process on the manner in which budget funds are spent. In that sense, the Strategy for the Development of the Public Information System in the Republic of Serbia between 2020 and 2025 envisages that "amendments to the law in the field of public information, as well as the 58 accompanying bylaw will prescribe, as an additional criterion in project co-financing competitions, the results of public hearings on which citizens expressed their opinion on topics and media content in order to achieve the public interest of citizens in the territory for which the competition was announced ”(measure 4.4., activity 4.4.1).

What is the commitment? The commitment includes amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media and the accompanying bylaw, in the direction of introducing the obligation of public authorities which conduct calls in the field of public information, to organize a public debate before announcing topics important for achieving public interest in the field of public information on the territory for which the competition is announced.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? By introducing the obligation to conduct public debates in order to define priority topics for achieving public interest through media content, citizens are given the opportunity to express their needs and point out particularly important topics for the community in which they live, which should be supported by budget funds. Also, in this way, they are given the opportunity to participate in the process of deciding on the spending of budget funds through participation in public debates. Overall, involving the community in the process of defining priority topics of public interest in its area ensures that supported media content responds to the needs of the citizens who make up that community.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? On the one hand, the commitment is relevant in relation to fiscal transparency, given that its implementation provides a better insight into the spending of budget funds by citizens. Also, the commitment contributes to improving the participation of citizens in decision-making processes, bearing in mind that, through public debates on particularly important topics for the realization of public interest, citizens are given the opportunity to participate in some way in the decision-making process regarding the use of budget funds.

Additional information The commitment is directly related to measure 4.4. of the Strategies for the development of the public information system in the Republic of Serbia for from 2020 to 2025.

Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start date: End date: 1. Forming a Working Group for developing the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media IV quarter of 2020 II quarter of 2021 2. Developing the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media II quarter of 2021 III quarter of 2021 59 3. The Government determines the Proposal of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media IV quarter of 2021 IV quarter of 2021

Action Plan Review

Commitment 12: Public Participation for Publicly Financed Media

• Verifiable: Yes
• Does it have an open government lens? Yes
• This commitment has been clustered as: Improvements to the Law on Public Information and Media (Commitments 11 and 12)
• Potential for results: Modest

Results Report

Commitment 12. Public participation for publicly financed media

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● This commitment has been clustered as: Improvements to the Law on Public Information and Media (Commitments 11 and 12)

● Potential for results: Modest

● Completion: Limited

● Did it open government? No early results to report yet

Like Commitment 11, Commitment 12 saw limited completion. The working group for producing the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media was created. However, the working group has not finalized its Draft Law. Consequently, the government did not adopt the Law Proposal on Amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media.

This cluster of commitments (11 and 12) could have strengthened public participation and media co-financing in the field of public information. An interviewed representative of the Ministry of Culture said that these commitments will probably be included in the next action plan. [48] To ensure the completion of activities under this cluster, the IRM recommends securing technical support for creating the platform and obtaining political endorsement for approving the amendments.