PODGORICA, 03.03.2022 – From March 1, commercial and non-profit electronic media can apply for the Competition for the distribution of funds from the Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity of the Media, the Agency for Electronic Media of Montenegro announced.
A total of just over 460,000 euros will be awarded, and with this announcement, distribution from the Fund for last year is completed.
The Media Law from 2020 introduced a Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity of the Media, financed by the state budget, and intended for commercial and non-profit electronic and print media, online publications and self-regulatory bodies. The percentage of funds allocated to the Fund is 0.09 percent of the current state budget of Montenegro.
The Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media is in charge of distributing money from the subfund for print media and internet publications, while the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media is in charge of the subfund for commercial and non-profit electronic media.
While the Council only recently published a call for project applications, the Commission of the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, which decides on the distribution of the budget for print media and online publications, did so in December last year. They supported 32 projects of print media and internet publications, including 12 projects of non-governmental organizations that have their own internet publications. They allocated 309,633 euros, which adds to the total amount of 774,083 euros to finance all media for 2021.
In addition to the time lag in publishing the call, the two sub-funds also drafted different regulations on the scoring of submitted projects.
“The competition will distribute funds from the Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity of Media Intended for Commercial and Non-Profit Electronic Media for 2021, in the amount of € 464,450.73 through grants to increase the volume, structure and diversity of its own program content dedicated to thematic areas of public interest and € 25,802.82 through grants to cover the operating costs of self-regulatory bodies “, states the invitation of the Agency, which is open until April 5.
In both sub-funds, financing of operational costs of self-regulation in the amount of about 43,000 euros is envisaged.
