Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Project manager and author: Dunja Latinovic, IREX SMAPCo-author and editing manager: Leon Morse, IREX
Data collection and processing: IPSOS Strategic Marketing Overall program supervision: Wes Burd, IREX SMAP
Executive Summary .............................................................................................................. 4
1 Background .................................................................................................................... 5
1.1
Media Context ......................................................................................................... 6
2 Fund Structure ............................................................................................................... 7
2.1
Recommended Activities......................................................................................... 8
2.2
Management Arrangements .................................................................................. 10
2.3
Start-Up Scenario ................................................................................................. 12
3 Feasibility and Risks .................................................................................................... 13
3.1
Feasibility .............................................................................................................. 13
3.2
Summary of Survey Findings ................................................................................ 17
3.3
Risk Analysis ........................................................................................................ 20
4 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 23
Annex 1 - Examples of Best Practice .................................................................................. 24
Annex 2 - Organizations, Institutions, Companies and Individuals Consulted ...................... 26
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
This Study explores the feasibility for a permanent multi-donor media support Fund in Serbia to channel resources to independent media in the face of scaled-back donor funding for this sector. The Study is a synthesis of desk-research, questionnaire analysis, and interviews with relevant parties. Existing and past multi-donor media development initiatives provided background and examples of best practices. Interviews with and questionnaires collected from potential international and Serbian donors form a key component of the determination of feasibility.
The guiding questions for this paper are:
1 What initiatives have been developed or are currently under exploration in Serbia that are relevant to this study?
2 What are relevant models for such a fund in South East Europe (SEE)/Central East
Europe (CEE)
3 Is the establishment of a multi-donor fund feasible in consideration of potential donors’ interest?
4 What are applicable best practices and possible foundations for potential future efforts and what is the recommended course of action in terms of the Fund’s scope and management arrangements?
5 If similar efforts have been tried before why did they not succeed?
6 What are possible challenges/issues that could impede full operational success of the Fund, assuming the development of the Fund is feasible?
7 What is the notional timeline for establishing such fund, from development to operational phase?
For purposes of this study “media development” is defined as efforts that foster sustainability, independence, and professionalism of media required to provide the public with useful, timely, and objective information. It is necessary, however, and particularly in relation to the sustainability and professionalism parts of the definition, to consider the possibility of overlapping with media for development efforts or, in other words, using media for civil society development goals.
Potential donors who took part in the research all positively assessed the feasibility of a multi-donor media fund. Most of respondents of this group agreed that the Fund should finance media that have a track record of professionalism and independence. Projects should be devoted to public interest themes and investigative journalism. There is a need to encourage good quality and professional media to resist tabloidization and develop their presence on alternative portals, thus extending their positive influence. Several respondents think that the Fund should be open to all media and that they should compete on a project basis for Fund resources.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Key recommendations

According to research results the idea of establishing a multi-donor fund for media is feasible and there is a strong desire to proceed with its realization;

A flexible, multi-disciplinary approach to the Fund’s profile design is necessary.
Donors should be given an option to support those lines that match their own strategies and priorities. The same goes for companies and corporations willing to participate in their corporate social responsibility capacity;

A wide range of topics of public interest in addition to sustainability and economic viability of media and capacity-building projects should all be considered as the
Fund’s core schemes;

Although support for projects through grants is the preferred option, a loan-based approach could be explored during a Pilot Phase of the operation;

The Fund should be implemented by a professional organization for an interim period, transitioning to a locally owned facility;

Detailed decision-making processes need to be carefully designed so as not to leave space for political, business, corporate, or any other influence;
 Basic principles of the Fund’s operation need to be agreed among all donors;

Monitoring and evaluation processes to track the Fund’s programming are necessary. Internal and external financial audits should be planned, as well;

The Fund should provide assistance and guidance for the applicants in project design, implementation, and close out phases.
The initial openness of potential donors interviewed for the purpose of this Study to pursue the idea further requires an elaborated and detailed plan and strategy to match their current individual efforts. The state’s participation in the Fund would improve transparency of public expenditures while at the same time largely contributing to development of the media scene in Serbia.
Long-term analysis results obtained from the IREX Media Sustainability Index (hereinafter: the MSI), European Journalism Centre, Reporters without Borders, Freedom House, South
East Europe Media Organisation and domestic and foreign analysts indicate that the Serbian media environment has been persistently deteriorating. Political pressures and lack of sufficient income are endangering independent media. Economic independence is a precondition for editorial independence and media professionalism. It would be important for the future of Serbian media to create conditions that will enable their fair positioning on the market, improve their economic position and consequently, their professionalism and competitiveness. Establishment of a Fund devoted to providing support to media operations and development could be an adequate answer to these pressing needs of the Serbian media scene.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
1.1 Media Context
The economic situation of commercial, local and regional media continues to deteriorate due to decreased advertising sales and other revenue sources as well as limited and/or unavailable state and donor support. The media remain vulnerable to political and economic pressures. Since 2008, the Serbian advertising market has experienced a continual slide, dropping from $268 million to $224 million in 2011, a loss of 16.5%. Advertising revenues in
2012 are expected to be similar to 2011 revenues. According to the EU Serbia 2012
Progress Report, “Access to advertising in the media remains under the control of a few economic and political actors, entailing a significant risk of influence on the media and of selfcensorship. Transparency of media ownership has yet to be ensured.”
Following both the adoption of the Media Strategy in September 2011 as well as the release of the Anti-Corruption Council report on control of the media in Serbia, the former g overnment’s and the Parliament’s first actions raised immediate concern and distrust. The
2012 budget proposed that the government allocates $4.5 million for the direct financing of media owned by the state (primarily TANJUG) rather than funding coverage of issues of public interest on a project basis, as suggested by the Media Coalition.
Today, unclear media ownership, preferential treatment, and politicized advertising budgets severely disrupt the position and performance of local and regional commercial media in the market.
The previous Ministry of Culture, with support from USAID and OSCE, drafted a new Law on
Electronic Media aiming to bring Serbian media legislation in line with EU’s Audiovisual
Media Services Directive. Through a less transparent procedure the Ministry also drafted the new Law on Public Information and Law on Public Service Broadcasting. The new Ministry confirmed that these drafts together with the draft Law on Accreditation of Foreign
Journalists and draft Law on Ownership Transparency and Media Concentration would serve as working drafts in the further development of the laws regulating media.
In general, media representatives mostly react in an ad hoc manner to proposed legal changes. Further, there is insufficient ongoing analysis of both current legislation, proposed amendments, and drafts of new laws. In the near future, according to many observers, the state needs to increase regulation over the public financing of media with the aim to bring it in line with the EU’s Acquis Communautaire .
Verbal and physical attacks on journalists and pressures on media continue, contributing heavily to an atmosphere of fear and self-censorship. Political and economic pressures against the media intensify during elections in particular. The 2012 Serbia Progress Report states, “…violence and threats against journalists remain of concern, although their frequency has decreased slightly. The Serbian authorities have continued to provide police protection for journalists and media outlets that have received threats. Investigations into murders of journalists dating back to the late 1990s/early 2000s and into recurring threats against journalists have so far failed to identify the perpetrators. A more comprehensive and proactive approach by the police and the judiciary remains essential.” The assassinations of
Slavko Ćuruvija, Dada Vujasinović, Milan Pantić, and an attempted assassination of Dejan
Anastasijević remain unsolved. In September 2012, the new government passed a decision to form an international commission to investigate these murders.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
In such a context, professional journalism mostly falls far short of minimum standards. The
2012 Media Sustainability Index reported: “Regarding professional standards in journalism,
Lukić commented, ‘Journalists often base a story on a single source, miss chances to conduct background research, and produce confusing content.’ Furthermore, in broadcast interviews, the apparent lack of knowledge and preparation by journalists conducting interviews sometimes creates verbal conflict and exhibitionism with the guests . As Lukić described, ‘...journalists are not aware of the normal standards in democratic societies, and accept attitudes that collide directly with elementary democratic norms. The so-called popular and sensational approach to serious themes, like family violence, discrimination, and liab ility... is not so rare.’”
All considered, media organizations and journalists in Serbia require continued support in the process of democratization and on the country’s path to EU membership.
In this section, IREX provides recommendations for possible activities for the Fund to support. Also included are one possibility for the structure and management of the Fund and a scenario for Fund startup. Further justification for these recommendations can be found in the next section, Feasibility and Risks.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
2.1 Recommended Activities
The goal of the Fund would be supporting the critical media sector functions of serving as a watchdog over government and business sectors, providing reliable information that meets citizens’ needs, and facilitating the ability of citizens to have their voices heard in the public sphere. To further this goal, research for the Study showed 11 possible topic areas for the fund to support using three different approaches. Some topics are specific to media, while others have broader appeal to donors (e.g., youth) and their participation in the Fund would be reliant on media beneficiaries covering such topics or otherwise including them in their media-related work or training. Further, preferences expressed by possible beneficiaries and donors alike pointed to the use of grant making by the Fund as the chief and likely exclusive means of supporting development in the topical areas. There were no expressions of willingness from surveyed potential donors to support a loan fund.
Topics identified by research to support through activities by media outlets and media support institutions include:

Minorities and marginal groups

Youth

Investigative reporting

New media and new technologies

Citizen empowerment and civil society

EU integration

Media legislation and policy

Media management and market research

Economy

Education
Based upon feedback from respondents, proposals from prospective beneficiaries would fall into three types of approaches:

Content production: grants to institutions and individuals involved in media production
(for print, radio, television and internet)

Capacity building: grants to support coaching, mentorships, exchanges, and networking

Media advocacy: grants to support monitoring and analysis of the media legal framework, media advocacy initiatives, and monitoring and analysis of the media market
Below are examples of how these topic areas and implementation approaches could result in successful proje cts that benefit both the media beneficiaries and the mission of the Fund’s donors.
Media literacy combines elements that benefit youth, education and civil society with media training. Media literacy efforts aim to create a society that is better able to analyze and evaluate news content in all its varieties. The BBC has, for instance, had a “behind-the scenes” segment for their programming to demystify the process of sourcing, verifying, and producing news. Media and journalists should be encouraged to educate society (e.g.,
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study schools and CSOs) on processes of providing relevant, timely, and objective information in addition to producing such content. Over time, such efforts will create participatory and active citizens who are able to identify, or at least question, censorship, propaganda and bias. Project proposals could incorporate content production and capacity building. Further, media literacy initiatives can support media advocacy by highlighting the role media play in society.
Projects focusing on social media bring together new technology and traditional journalism practices. Today, news often appears first on social networks (news about the Costa Rica earthquake, for instance, first appeared on Twitter). However, social media can often be misinterpreted and misused, as can any other source. Incorrect information is widespread. It is important to continue educating journalists, editors, and organizations on how to draw authentic voices out of the social media noise, how to verify those voices and best distribute them and finally, how to successfully manage their social media activity.
According to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network report “Media Financing from Local
SelfGovernments’ Budget Funds,” there is a major imbalance between financing of public companies and privately owned media. Despite the fact that privately owned media individually receive much less allocated funds than public media, more than 70% of all earmarked funds are spent on subsidizing the latter. In such a particularly difficult position, networking, capacity building, and quality production assistance for local commercial media would be of particular significance given their role in grassroots development of a more democratic society.
To advance the sustainability of independent investigative journalism it is important to continue the training of journalists to ensure that quality content is produced, is visible and distributed across multiple platforms. This could be achieved by providing continued and balanced support for training, publishing, and developing the technical skills of journalists, editors, and news desks. To ensure visibility and impact of investigative stories, support for publishing platforms (online, television, and radio) to carry produced content would be exceptionally important as well.
With digitalization scheduled for 2015, Serbian local commercial and independent television stations are facing a significant hurdle due to high costs of the transition; some within the industry fear the transition could spell the end for many. The Fund could earmark resources for assisting select media in their conversion transition, or successful proposals for content generation could help improve the finances of such stations.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
‘We should focus on creating community media. In light of digitalization, if civil society does not advocate for community media in the Frequency Plan the state will distribute those frequencies to commercial broadcasters.’ Dragan
Kremer, interview quote
The Media Coalition (Association of Independent Electronic Media, Independent Journalists’
Association of Serbia, Journalists’ Association of Serbia, Independent Association of
Journalists of Vojvodina and Lokal pres) has been investing in significant advocacy efforts for the implementation of the Media Strategy that the government passed in 2011. The
Media Coalition has been closely monitoring the legislative framework, with the goal of ensuring basic principles of media freedoms. Further support for strengthening the Media
Coalition in their capacity building and advocacy endeavors would be strategically important for overall media development in Serbia.
‘We lack official information in particular. We still do not know how much money is spent on the media, who gives it and in what way, and this would be a very important datum for us.’ Dragana Nikolic Solomon, Head of OSCE
Media Department
2.2 Management Arrangements
USAID or a consortium of donors could facilitate the development of a multi-donor media fund through capacity building of local CSOs, foundations, or networks of such groups to strengthen their operations and ability to interact with multiple donors. In time, such a group could, if conditions are suitable, assume control of the Fund. However, in the short term an implementing organization (an international NGO or firm) would be best suited to manage the Fund’s administrative functions such as finance and monitoring grantee performance.
The implementing organization could also be charged with creating capacity for the local partner to subsequently take a lead and ownership of the Fund.
The role played by fund managers varies. In the case of the Rapid Fund Envelope for
HIV/AIDS Tanzania —a partnership between the Tanzania Commission for AIDS, the
Zanzibar AIDS Commission, nine bilateral donors including USAID, and one private foundation, Deloitte oversees fund administration. In the case of the International
Management Group for the Norwegian Embassy Civil Society Fund in Kosovo, the implementing organization provides both technical assistance and administration. The role of the implementing organization includes securing additional donor buy-in.
Although managed by intermediaries, donors may continue to have influence on the Fund through their presence on a donor coordination board or advisory board.
Donors’ selection of an implementing organization reflects, among other qualifications, their management capacity, credibility, and ability to provide capacity building support to CSOs.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Another option to be considered is core funding to a well-regarded local CSO to build up their capacity in management of large multi-donor projects. One example of such an initiative is the Ghana Research Advocacy Programme (G-RAP) that supports the development of research and advocacy organizations. G-RAP is jointly financed by the UK, Canada,
Denmark, and the Netherlands, who contribute to a pooled fund. In this case, however, donors share the same set of standards and reporting requirements.
In the process of selection of the Fund implementer, focus should be on those organizations with a proven track record and highest, possibly certified, project management and accounting standards.
After a few years, the final decision on the need to create a dedicated staff for the Fund, to keep it in the hands of a professional management organization, or to house it with a local
CSO would depend on size of the Fund, workload, performance of the implementing organization, and many other factors.
While the exact structure of the Fund will no doubt be subject to discussion between important donors and local stakeholders, the following is an overview of what such a Fund might ultimately look like:
Donor Policy Coordination Committee sets overall policies and determines the Fund mission.
The committee is also the founder of the Fund: it appoints the implementing organization and the initial Board of Directors. Such a committee may or may not be a permanent.
Fund Operations’ Management is run by the selected implementing organization. Its functions include:

Development of the strategy and workflow procedures for the pilot phase of the Fund;

Design of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms;
 Set up and management of advanced accounting procedures to match donors’ requirements;

Selection and overall management of finance and administration personnel;

Hiring and management of the project management cycle pool of consultants;

Approaching additional potential donors;
The Board convenes periodically to discuss project proposals and decides on their funding.
Members are representatives of Serbian media scene of differing professional profiles; some board members may be selected from the ranks of the donor community. Board members have terms that have staggered expiration dates to ensure continuous inflow of new approaches and perspectives while at the same time retaining institutional memory. The
Board communicates its decisions to the Secretariat.
Finances and Project Administration ensures smooth workflow implementation and provide operational support to the Fund management.
Project Management Cycle Pool of Consultants contracted based on need to guide and assist applicants in the process of project design, implementation, compliance, and reporting.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
A challenge at the outset will be to strike a balance between adherence to operating procedures and the Fund’s fundamental purpose. The Fund’s implementing organization should develop simplified yet efficient operating procedures that are harmonized with specific donors’ requirements.
2.3 Start-Up Scenario
‘There is a risk that if no progress is made over time in the media scene, donors will start detracting from the Fund. The question is how you animate the machinery to stay (pro) active? To mitigate this, maybe earmark a portion of contribution for research, student exchange, internships - Al Jazeera
Balkans, for instance -, in any case for activities that provide new perspectives.’ Interview quote, Kevin Mannion, General Coordinator,
International Management Group
A careful defining of the Fund’s vision and mission at the policy level and among all committed donors is required. A sound foundation will serve as an initial step toward development of a strategy for the pilot phase. Lessons learned from similar ventures worldwide indicate that the pilot phase of large-scale multi-donor initiative should be no less than three years of duration (e.g. Tanzania case) in order to attract additional donors, redefine strategies, and solidify the mechanisms of the Fund’s operations.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Activity
Donor policy making and selection of the implementer
Establishment of the
Secretariat
Establishment of the
Board
First operations running
1
X
2
X
3
X
Month
4
X
X
5
X
X
6
X
3.1 Feasibility
Data obtained through interviews and questionnaires clearly indicate enough donor interest that establishment of a multi-donor media fund is feasible. Six donor organizations (including bilateral, multilateral, and private), three Serbian corporations, and the Serbian Ministry of
Culture and Information have expressed interest in supporting such a Fund. Some respondents also expressed a desire to see a portion of national lottery proceeds or RRA’s leftover funds, which are currently returned to the treasury, benefit this Fund. This study revealed that support for an independent, diverse, and vibrant media remains valuable and relevant in the eyes of many donors.
In the preceding section, this Study made recommendations on the scope of activity funding and possible management structures of the Fund. The scope and management recommendations were made with maximum possibility for Fund success in mind. In this section, the underlying reasons for those recommendations, based upon the results of research carried out for this Study, are explained.
3.1.1 Justification of Proposed Scope of Activities
Although media development as a specific topic may not be high on the agenda of many donors —topics such as youth, minorities, and marginal groups prevail—there is keen interest among all 10 organizations to work with media to produce high quality content and reporting that furthers their goals related to those topics. Such support can be classified as
“media for development,” and is in many ways indirect support to media. However, in
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study interviews with representatives of media outlets, the potential beneficiaries of the Fund, there was expressed interest in development of quality topical content. Therefore, there is alignment between several potential donors and potential beneficiaries along this line.
Respondents to the study expressed their wish that the Fund’s scope reflect donors’ individual strategies as widely as possible. With most potential donors not specifying media development as part of their mission, defining t he Fund’s scope as either broad media development or focusing on fewer topics (e.g., supporting only investigative journalism or only new media initiatives) might both result in limited donor support and, consequently, limited impact. The likelihood of a permanent and sustainable Fund would be greatly reduced. Therefore, including a wide possibility for topical areas would appeal to a sizeable donor base. The scope of this Study did not include obtaining “pledges” from potential donors; an unexpectedly large donation from a few donors could change this reasoning.
With a relatively wide topical scope, the few proposed approaches that the Fund will consider for funding will keep to a manageable scope the Fund’s own decisions on funding applications.
Further, respondents to the Study stated their preference that the Fund’s activities be grantbased, further keeping activities manageable.
The proposed programmatic approaches that the Fund will support within the topic areas is also a function of matching donor interest with the needs of the Serbian media sector.
Supporting content production will, for example, appeal to donors that wish to primarily support the promotion of certain topics while injecting resources into media outlets. Capacity building will meet a need highlighted by potential beneficiaries while appealing to donors interested in certain topics (e.g., providing training in reporting on certain topics) and to donors interested in media development generally. Finally, engaging in media advocacy support will support a continued need of the Serbian media sector and appeal to donors who seek alignment of Serbian laws with those of the EU or those who more broadly seek a more open society.
The table below summarizes the areas of interest emphasized by potential donors interviewed as part of this study as those they are most interested in supporting.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Areas of
Support
Minorities/
Marginal
Groups
Youth
Investigative
Journalism
Potential Donors
NED
NED
NED
OSF
OSF
Dunav
Osiguranje
New Media and
New
Technologies
NED
Citizen
Empowerment and Civil
Society
German
Embassy
EU Integrations EU
Dunav
Osiguranje
BTD
Media
Legislation and
Policy
Media
Management and Market
Research
Education
OSF
GMF
GMF
Raiffeisen
Bank
German
Embassy
Ministry of
Culture and
Information
Dunav
Osiguranje
NED
Economy
Telenor Raiffeisen
Bank
NED Ministry of
Culture and
Information
Raiffeisen
Bank
Raiffeisen
Bank
GMF
Ministry of
Culture and
Information
Ministry of
Culture and
Information
Ministry of
Culture and
Information
Ministry of
Culture and
Information
Telenor Dunav
Osiguranje
Telenor
GMF
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
The graphic that follows matches donors to topics, with weighting to demonstrate the estimated donor size and potential for each topic to generate donor interest.
Culture and art
Ecology and Environment
Fund for Open Society
Media management and market research
Education
Telenor
Media
Legislation and
Policy
Balkan Trust for
Democracy
Reiffeisen bank
German Marshall
Fund
Minorities/Marginal Groups
Youth
Citizen empowerment and civil society
NED
Ministry of Culture and Information
Dunav osiguranje
German
Embassy
EU integration
Economy
Investigative journalism
European Union
New media and new technologies
Chart 3.1
3.1.2 Justification of Proposed Management Structure
Respondents from all target groups agree on the necessity to create a professionally managed fund with clearly defined mechanisms to ensure accountability, transparency, and objectivity. Donors’ inclination—and in some cases their precondition to joining—is a fund managed by an experienced, professional, large project management firm to serve as the
Fund implementer. Alternatively, for some donors, the Fund’s management could be entrusted to an independent steering committee composed of selected media professionals.
On the potential beneficiaries’ side, most respondents expressed a desire for a locally established board.
All considered a clear line of separation between administrative and financial functions on one side and the decision-making functions on the other is necessary.
Alongside interviews with different stakeholders, IREX conducted a desk review of applicable worldwide best practices for establishing multi-donor development funds.
Commonly, transitioning management to local ownership is performed once the intermediary —as an interim measure—has built sufficient capacity and legitimacy in a given fund.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
3.2 Summary of Survey Findings
3.2.1 Survey Findings - Donor Landscape
Potential donors who took part in the research all positively assessed the feasibility of a multi-donor media fund. The initial openness of this group to pursue the idea further requires an elaborated and detailed plan and strategy to match their current individual efforts. This segment outlines in detail the respondents’ positions.

International Organizations
The European Union Delegation to the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter: the EU) has been recognized by most respondents as one of the biggest potential donors since it has so far allocated significant resources for Serbian media.
A precondition for the EU’s participation in the Fund includes restriction of support to the topics pertaining to Serbia’s EU integration processes, only. The EU’s Strategic Plan includes support for media projects dealing with thirty topics that would be subject to
Serbia’s EU membership negotiations, once the date for the beginning of the negotiations is set.
Synchronization of the Fund’s support schemes with the EU’s strategic objectives would be necessary.
Fund for Open Society-Serbia (hereinafter: FOS) has continuously been providing support for media in Serbia. Although their level of funding has significantly decreased recently, compared with a decade ago, FOS remains a donor that supports media development as opposed to, or rather, in addition to media for development.
FOS’s assistance is two-fold: for media content production and development of the legislative framework. The former includes investigative journalism and support for media dealing with topics of a wider social significance that are often not sufficiently recognized as such (corruption, facing the past, etc.). The latter form of assistance aims to reform the media enabling environment and consequently citizens’ right to be objectively informed.
FOS sees its involvement in the multi-donor media Fund through projects supporting high quality media productions dealing with topics of public, social importance, particularly those dealing with the status of marginal groups, national minorities, and youth. FOS representatives would seek to harmonize donors’ strategies so that joining the Fund would make sense and provide, through joint work, a better contribution to enhancement of freedom of the media and better information for citizens of Serbia’ than existing funds and donations on their own.
National Endowment for Democracy’s (hereinafter: NED) their statutes pose restrictions for
NED’s participation in a fund as a donor. However, NED’s past experience in similar cases includes grant making to a specialized implementer managing a fund to disburse contributions further in the form of project-based sub-grants.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
German Embassy representative has assessed the EU integration in addition to civil society as the two most important areas that need to be dealt with by the media. The Embassy currently does not provide support for media related projects; assistance for this area has been significantly reduced since 2005.
However, it is not impossible that the Embassy would get involved in the work of the Fund by supporting those projects that tackle civil society and EU integration topics.
Balkan Trust for Democracy (hereinafter: BTD) recognizes problems on the media scene to be among the most important and assesses efforts of the Study as positive. However, BTD’s assistance to media comes in the form of support to projects tackling topics of public interest and citizens’ education programs; like most other potential donors, it seeks to support media in producing content dealing with these subjects. In consideration that BTD’s mandate ends in June 2013 and there is an expected significant decrease in the amount of resources in the forthcoming mandate, BTD perceives itself as a minor donor.
‘Topics that educate people, whether this is security in the region, health system, school, but program schemes have to be education orientated, this is what we strive to’. BTD representative questionnaire response
German Marshall Fund (hereinafter: GMF) joining the Fund could come restricted to specific topics or projects. GMF assesses as most important institutional support for media organizations and subsequently, support to specific quality projects. GMF considers support for investigative journalism, EU integrations reporting and reporting on the state of economy to be of particular importance.

The State
State Secretary Predić of the Ministry of Culture and Information strongly supports the idea of establishment of the Fund and sees room for the State’s involvement. This would apply to projects dealing with the following topics/areas: usage of new technologies and multimedia operations, reporting on vulnerable groups, youth, investigative journalism, economy, and other areas. The Ministry is also interested in supporting work related to media legislation.
Predić proposes that a portion of the IPA funds that are assigned to the Ministry and are aimed at the enhancement of media awareness should be earmarked for this fund.
Gordana Suša of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (hereinafter: RBA) has expressed her opinion whereby surplus RBA fees should ideally be allocated to quality media projects and cultural initiatives rather than to the State budget. At the top of Suša’s list for support by a media Fund are education, culture, news programming, and investigative journalism projects. It remains unclear, however, if Suša spoke in her capacity of member of the RBA
Council or as a journalist.
Several respondents, primarily media representatives, said that the State should join the
Fund. The State’s contribution to the Fund would, they believe, ensure transparency of public funds allocated to the media, which would improve the entire media sector.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
‘We would then have more clear criteria on allocation of the public funds, since the money has undoubtedly been given now, but we don’t know to whom and according to which criteria. Involvement in the Fund would reveal these resources and criteria for allocation of this support. Then the criteria could be commented and one could analyze whether the State does something for the freedom of information or only promotes special political objectives through its support.’ Questionnaire response, potential donor representative

Business Sector (Corporate Social Responsibility)
Business sector representatives taking part in the research have demonstrated openness to the idea of the Fund. However, their involvement in the Fund brings about limitations, as these companies have so far not had experience with the provision of support to the media sector. Support to youth, minorities and marginal social groups have so far been major focus of the business sector CSR.
Given such strategic determination of the business sector, CSR support to media could come for those initiatives that are closely tackling specific topics.
There were three business sector representatives who expressed interest in joining the Fund in their CSR capacity. While interest from Telenor and Raiffeisen is limited to supporting areas of social interest, rather than supporting media development as such, Dunav
Osiguranje expressed interest in media development as well.
Telenor ’s strategic orientation includes support in four areas: youth and education, ecology and environmental protection, assistance to marginal social groups and development of culture and art. Telenor is interested in providing assistance to these specific areas through the Fund. Merging the topic of education of youth with media would be of particular interest to Telenor.
Raiffeisen Bank expressed interest in joining the Fund by supporting projects dealing with youth, marginal social groups, and other areas of wider social interest.
Dunav Osiguranje expressed firm interest to joining the Fund through both support for quality projects and through institutional support. Topics of interest for this possible donor include investigative journalism, reporting on minorities, media management, multimedia and new technologies, and market research.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
3.2.2 Survey Findings - Potential Beneficiaries
Potential beneficiaries of the Fund mostly agree that support is necessary for quality projects of content production (investigative journalism, culture and educational programming, and
EU integration subjects) and for capacity building in the areas of new media and new technologies adoption and use and marketing and sales.
One important point around which this target group largely agrees is that, apart from technical assistance, there is need for administrative guidance in the managing donor funds, including the application process. This type of assistance is particularly significant for local media who seldom can afford professional help while lacking in-house know-how.
‘This has to be a flexible body that is able to adapt to given circumstance and given issues.’ Questionnaire response, potential donor representative
There is a widespread opinion that the Fund should be flexible and fast in reacting
3.2.3 Survey Findings - Civil Society Organizations
Representatives of this target group urge support for projects that deal with EU integration.
They advocate for media as places for public debate, media that engage citizens.
Additionally, CSOs insist on training journalists and editors in subjects such as gender sensitive writing and reporting, reporting on marginal groups, and usage of appropriate vocabulary and importance of public participation in decision-making processes.
3.3 Risk Analysis
The following risk analysis has been performed in consideration of the fund’s recommended management and programming set up for an interim period of the fund’s transition from an intermediary to a locally owned fund.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Task
Establishment of the Fund
Board decisionmaking on provision of support
Risks
Lack of funding from development partners
Maintain the quality of the
Board in the long run
Risk Level
High
Moderate
Low
Low
Medium to
Low
Mitigating measures
· Define the financial window among donors for three years of the Pilot Phase.
Fund’s operations
Complex application, decision-making and reporting procedures hinder efficiency and impact of the
Fund
Medium
Maintenance of the Fund’s viability and vibrancy
High impact of the Fund’s support for issues of public concern
Donors detracting due to lack of progress in the media scene
Public interest in issues of accountability and transparency not sustained
Low
Medium
· Representatives of donors available to step in and act as Board members for the time necessary to select professional
Board members;
· Returning Board members one year passed the end of their previous mandate.
· In the Inception Phase, the
Implementing organization designs a detailed and flexible plan as to operating procedures and decision-making processes. Flexibility of the Plan must allow for subsequent adjustments;
· Ascertain availability of a pool of
Project Management Cycle consultants prior to beginning of operations. The PMC pool’s role is to assist the applicants and guide them through the process of project design, management and close out;
· The Board decides on provision of support on the basis of a Concept Note and a Budget submitted by applicants;
· Select an Implementer with proven track record and highest, possibly certified, project management and accounting standards.
Earmark funds for networking, student internships, exchange.
· Support is provided to those production proposals that reflect public interest concerns, that are disseminated through meaningful media (including internet), that are interesting, understandable and engaging for wider public;
· Encourage collaboration between media and CSOs.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Task
Fund’s programming
Fund’s impact and programming
Fund’s impact and programming
Risks
Concentration of ownership of media restricts media freedoms
(through censorship, selfcensorship and editorial interference) and visibility and impact of supported projects of public interest
Unsatisfactory quality of output of the grantees
Insufficient number of quality proposals received
Risk Level
High
Moderate
Low
High
Medium to
High
Medium
Mitigating measures
· Apart from mainstream media, the
Fund will encourage publishing on the
Internet (blogs and social networks in particular).
· The Fund will support platforms that publish/broadcast stories on topics of public interest, particularly in the area of investigative journalism.
Fund’s operations
Maintenance of the Fund’s neutrality, objectivity and transparency
Insufficient capacity of the staff for quality implementation of the Fund’s programming
Partiality in provision of support
Low
Low
Grantees are eligible for coaching throughout the project duration through the
Fund’s capacity-building scheme.
The Secretariat will reach out to potential beneficiaries through calls for proposals and directly, in group meetings.
The Implementer will pay particular attention to hiring senior: a. finance/administration personnel, b. communication and program outreach personnel and c. digital/new media personnel.
· A clear line of separation between administrative and financial functions on one side and the decision-making functions on the other is necessary;
· Seven members of the Board with differing mandate duration would ensure continuous inflow of new approaches and perspectives while at the same time retaining institutional memory.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
The Study has been conducted as a combination of desk research, which aimed at exploration of existing data, in-depth interviews with relevant target groups in order to examine their views regarding establishment of the Fund and its feasibility, short surveys quantifying readiness of donors to join the fund, and data and information verification and analysis.
Desk research for this study, set out to explore existing models of media funds or other multi-donor funds in our neighborhood and the world. The ultimate goal was to determine existing models in the region and worldwide, their most important characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, and their sustainability. The data collected from the desk research, in addition to providing relevant information about what has been done in this field so far, provided relevant material, on the basis of which guidelines for interviews with key respondents were developed (second stage of the research).
In-depth interviews with key respondents (representatives of media, media organizations, civil sector and potential donors) were a natural extension of the desk research with the goal of examining if and in what form establishment and functioning of the Fund is possible in
Serbia. Respondents were asked to comment on problems the media in Serbia face, priority issues, opportunities and challenges for establishment of a fund, principles and standards that it should adhere to and the course of action that it should take. A particular emphasis has been placed on readiness and preconditions of donors to take part in establishing and managing the fund. This was discussed through in-depth interviews (face-to-face and Skype) and, in cases where respondents were unavailable for interview, through a short e-mail questionnaire (survey).
IPSOS Strategic Marketing, the researching company has provided IREX with data collected and processed following the ESOMAR and ISI (International Statistical Institute) standards.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and Diversity - Croatia
The Croatian Agency for Electronic Media manages a Fund for Encouraging Pluralism and
Diversity . The source of the f und’s capital is 3% of the subscription fees paid to Croatian
Radio Television (defined by the Law on Croatian Radio Television). The aim of the fund is to promote radio and TV programs of public interest. The fund has a special rulebook determining the following: public bidding for fund co-financing procedures, approved funds monitoring, and program realization monitoring. The fund has also defined different forms for applications. The fund’s council makes the decisions. Each of seven members of the fund’s council is assessing every application on the basis of criteria defined by the law and the fund rules. Those criteria are:

Importance of program for public interest

Innovations in quality and content of proposed TV and Radio program

Project importance for national, regional or local development

Encouraging employment of highly educated persons, handicapped persons and veterans and members of their families
Tanzania Media Fund
In 2008, a group of six donors joined resources together to facilitate the establishment of the
Tanzania Media Fund (TMF). With a budget of $7.5 million and a timeframe of three years,
Hivos was invited to set up the independent TMF organization and to implement its core activities; providing grants and capacity building opportunities for journalists and media organizations and building a strong national and international media network. The pilot phase of the fund operated from 2008 to 2011.
For the period June, 2012 to May, 2015, TMF manages a budget of $9.4 million. Operational costs represent approximately 20% of TMF’s total budget. The remaining 80% is earmarked for grants, learning, and outreach. TMF has an average annual budget of $3.1 million.
TMF is an initiative of a group of development partners in Tanzania. They include: Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UK Department for International
Development (DFID), Irish Aid, and The Royal Danish Embassy.
Southern Africa Media Development Fund
The Southern Africa Media Development Fund (Samdef) traces its origins to the Second
Annual General Meeting of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), which was held in
Mbabane, Swaziland in November 1994. That meeting, which brought together a diverse group of independent media practitioners from the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) countries, resolved that the MISA Head Office in Windhoek commission a feasibility study into the setting up of a venture capital/revolving fund to assist with the development of the nascent independent media in the SADC region which is facing a number of problems. This study was conducted during the course of 1995 and, the decision
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study to set up a media development fund ratified by the Annual Congress of MISA in Zanzibar in
November of the same year.
Samdef was established in 1998, as a media development arm of MISA, the southern Africa regional lobby body. Its initial mandate was to provide finance, training, and development support to emerging media enterprises in the region. In an endeavor to realign the operations of the institution, a major restructuring exercise was undertaken in 2001. The restructuring exercise saw the creation of a new institution: the Southern Africa Institution for
Media Entrepreneurship Development (SAIMED), which focuses on entrepreneurial development, research, and training. Samdef retained the core business for the provision of media finance.
From the initial amount of $1 million in 1998, Samdef's portfolio has grown steadily to over
$9 million. Over the period Samdef has invested in over 30 projects throughout the region in different media sectors like television, radio, newspaper, video production, and magazines.
Samdef raises funds from donors who share the concept of supporting media with the goal of creating a democratic society. The major funders are Free Voice from the Netherlands and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Samdef has in the past received support from institutions such as Open Society Institute of Southern Africa, USAID,
Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa, Inter Fund, and IBIS.
Media Development Loan Fund
International media loan funds have only existed for 15 years with the Media Development
Loan Fund (MDLF) being the oldest established in 1995. MDLF argues that loans contribute to cementing sustainable media development and build up media companies while grants, as a means of media assistance, are a way of supporting the message without considering the media delivering it. MDLF’s investments are guided by “country needs,” not geography.
So far, MDLF’s investments have been in programs for small and medium-sized enterprises, building capacity through financing and the development of management skills.
MDLF’s strategy has been to bring together loans and grants. The experience proves that loans and grants can work effectively together. The capital gains made by MDLF are placed in a subsidy fund. They charge all clients 4% to 8% interest on their loans, while the remainder is covered by the client’s subsidy fund. In this way old projects fund new ones.
MDLF measures the impact of its investments by monitoring sales, reach, and financial viability of the businesses invested in. The content analysis of the type of coverage produced by clients should show the link between the loans and democracy developments in a country. Another solution could be for media loan funds to come together and identify a third party to look at their social impact, according to MDLF.
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
The following institutions, organizations and companies were included in this research (37 in total):
Civil Initiatives
Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence
Faculty of Political Sciences, Zagreb
Raiffeisen Bank
Telenor
Dunav osiguranje
OSI
MDLF
European Fund for Balkan
OSCE
Giz
German Embassy
Balkan Trust Fund
EU Delegation in Serbia, Media Department
BBC Trust Fund/IREX Europe
NED
German Marshall Fund
RRA
RATEL
Ministry of Culture and Information
NIN
Radio 021 Novi Sad
Radio Srbobran
Radio Ozon Čačak
B92 Fondacija
Local Press
Radio Televizija Vojvodine
Beta
Tanjug
TV Forum, Prijepolje
Dubravka Velat, Director
Sonja Liht, Director
Davor Glavaš, Professor
Nemanja Naunović, Deputy Head of
Marketing and PR
Ivana Vranjican, External Affairs
Manager, Corporate Communications and PR
Milica Slijepčević, Director of PR Sector
Jadranka Jelinčić, Director
Saša Vučinić, Managing Director
Hedvig Morvai-Horvath, Director
Dragana Solomon, Head of Media
Department
Ana Pribićević Čamernik, Public
Relations Manager
Marko Čadež, Spokesperson
Gordana Delić, Director
Saša Đorđević, Media and Information
Officer
Russell Peasgood, Project Manager
Ivana Howard, Senior Program Officer
Ivan Vejvoda, Vice President, Programs
Gordana Suša, Council Member
Milan Janković, Director
Gordana Predić, State Secretary
Nebojša Spaić, Editor-in-Chief
Slobodan Krajnović, Editor-in-Chief
Ivica Šmit, Editor-in-Chief
Stojan Marković, Director
Veran Matić, President
Snežana Milojević, General Secretary
Siniša Isakov, General Director
Ljubica Marković, Editor-in-Chief
Branka Đukić, Director
Mileva Malešić, Editor-in-Chief
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
NDNV
ANEM
UNS
NUNS
SEEMO
IMG
Nedim Sejdinović, Vice President
Saša Mirković, President
Ljiljana Smajlović, President
Vukašin Obradović, President
Oliver Vujović, Secretary General
Dragan Kremer, Media Expert
Kevin Mannion, General Coordinator
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Establishment of a Multi-Donor Media Fund in Serbia: Feasibility Study
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