Opening Data for Public Calls for Media Development (RS0031)

Opening of data from public calls for financing the work of associations and
co-financing of development of the media content of public interest
Q4 2018 - Q1 2019
Lead implementing agency Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government
Office for Information Technologies and e-Government
Description of Commitment
Problem addressed by the
commitment
Public data on the funding of projects in the public, business and civil
sectors have garnered much interest from the public. It is estimated that
almost RSD 17 billion was spent in 2016 from the budget line 481 for
financing of projects alone, while RSD 2 billion was spent on cofinancing of projects for development of the media content of public
interest.
These data are available on the basis of the Law on Free Access to
Information of Public Importance. However, the procedure of
accessing information is time-consuming and data are not machinereadable. Data on projects financed by citizens’ money must be
published in an open format so they could be easily accessible and
comparable. Adoption of the Law on e-Government and the planned
Regulation on Detailed Requirements for Development and
Maintenance of Official Websites of Authorities is an excellent
opportunity to introduce the duty to publish data from public calls for
financing projects for achievement of the public interest implemented
21
by associations and public calls for financing of projects for cofinancing of development of the media content of public interest in a
machine-readable form.
Main objective Publishing of data from public calls for financing projects for
achievement of the public interest implemented by associations and
public calls for financing of projects for co-financing of development
of the media content of public interest in a machine-readable form.
How will this commitment
contribute to problem
solving?
Introduction of the duty to publish public data on projects financed
(fully or partially) by public authorities in an open format on their
official websites and on the Open Data Portal ensures almost full
transparency in this field. When these data are published in an open
format, it will no longer be necessary to submit requests to access
information of public importance, which will facilitate the work of
public authorities and the Commissioner for Information of Public
Importance and Personal Data Protection. In addition, open data on
projects financed by public money will ensure easier analysis and reuse
of public data which may provide additional value for state institutions
and the business and civil sectors.
The way in which this
commitment is relevant to
further advancing OGP
values
Introduction of this commitment will contribute to improvement of
transparency of public authorities, and the expected result is
achievement of almost full transparency of public data held by public
authorities on the funding of projects implemented by associations and
projects for the development of the media content. This will also
increase accountability of public authorities and the quality of projects
which pursue public interests.
Additional information
Activity with a verifiable
deliverable and completion
date
Start Date: End Date:
1. Adoption of the
Regulation on the Content
of Websites of Public
Authorities, which
introduces the duty to
publish public data on
financed projects in an open
data form
Q4 2018 Q4 2018
2. Preparation of a guide Q1 2019 Q1 2019
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Contact information
Name of a responsible person in the
implementing agency
Natalija Pavlović Šiniković
Mihailo Jovanović
Title, Department Assistant Minister, MPALSG, Sector for
Development of Good Governance
Director, Office for Information Technologies and
e-Government
Email and phone number natalija.pavlovic@mduls.gov.rs
mihailo.jovanovic@ite.gov.rs
Other actors involved
Administration
Civil sector
organisations,
private sector,
working groups
CSOs that are members of the OGP Working
Group

4. Opening data from public calls for financing work of associations and media development

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

Title: Opening of data from public calls for financing the work of associations and co-financing of development of the media content of public interest

Publishing of data from public calls for financing projects for achievement of the public interest implemented by associations and public calls for financing of projects for co-financing of development of the media content of public interest in a machine-readable form.

Start Date: Q4 2018

End Date: Q1 2019

Context and Objectives

The Law on Public Information and Media from 2014 (amended in 2015 and in 2016) obliged the government to remove its ownership of media, installing instead a system of public calls for budget co-financing of media projects in line with the public interest. ^[47] The Guidelines for Creating Web Presentations of State Authorities, previously developed by the former E-government Directorate, aim to direct the public authorities to publish their data so as to increase transparency and availability. ^[48] Furthermore, according to the Regulation on Funds to Support Programs or Missing Amount of Funds for Programs of Public Interest implemented by associations, public calls should be focused at the projects of public interest only. ^[49] In the opinion of the informal coalition of journalists and media associations that actively monitors such calls however, media projects without a clear relation to the public interest still win many awards at both the state and local levels. ^{[50] [51]} According to the OCCS reports on public funds granted to the associations, sports associations represent the largest recipients of these funds. According to these reports, there is also a significant difference between the data published by the public authorities and data published by the Treasury Administration. ^[52] The calls are often inadequately publicized, lacking clear criteria and lacking biographies of the grant-giving commission members and the score lists of the granted projects to justify the awarded grants. ^[53]

In response, this commitment aims to ensure full transparency of projects that public authorities finance or co-finance and that media associations implement. As stated in the commitment description, it further aims to eliminate the need to submit requests to access information of public importance and aims to ensure easier analysis and reuse of public data. In terms of tackling the OGP values, this commitment is thus directly related to the access to information and technology and innovation for transparency and accountability.

However, it is highly questionable whether this commitment will achieve the objectives set. The Ministry of Culture and Information representatives were consulted at the early stage of developing commitment proposals, ^[54] but this institution is not identified among the (lead nor supporting) implementing agencies in the Action Plan. This commitment also seems to overlap with the commitment 2 related to the e-Calendar of public calls. Moreover, although OCCS later explained to the IRM researchers that this commitment is related only to the media, ^[55] it remains unclear why the commitment contains associations as its subjects. The focus of the commitment on the media only was also confirmed to the IRM researchers by the institutions in charge of the implementation (MPALSG) [56] and the other stakeholders (international organization and CSOs involved in the Working Group and dealing with the open data). [57] With only two quite broadly defined activities (adoption of the Regulation on Detailed Requirements for Development and Maintenance of Official Websites of Authorities and preparation of a new guide on this matter), this commitment is also vague and lacks precision, limiting the IRM researchers’ ability to establish its potential impact. For example, it is unclear whether the data from public calls would be published on the National Open Data Portal, which would significantly increase access for all stakeholders. ^[58] Another issue raised is whether the data published can be updated by the grant providers throughout the year. Finally, as explained to the IRM researchers, the process of adoption of the regulation disregarded recommendations by the Office for Information Technologies and e-Government to precisely define the content of web pages based on the instructions for developing information booklets, made by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection. ^[59] The reason was of a legalistic nature because the bylaw emerged from the Law on e-Government and not the Law on Free Access to Information.

Consulted CSOs had mixed opinions about the commitment’s scope. Although the Law on Electronic Government covers all entities of public authorities (including public enterprises), ^[60] some CSOs representatives dealing with media freedom pointed out that the commitment will not manage to cover the large amount of funds provided by public enterprises for media development support. ^[61] Representatives of international organizations dealing with media monitoring thought that the activities within this commitment were good enough but that they should have also focused on amending the rulebook on co-financing media projects relevant to public interest. ^[62] As an activity within the commitment, the guide should present the instructions on the public call procedure implementation, including the procedure on publishing data on financed projects. Thus, the guide may prove to be helpful in supporting this commitment’s implementation, particularly if it includes the content not addressed within the Regulation on Detailed Requirements for Development and Maintenance of Official Websites of Authorities (such as the standards for web-page content). ^[63]

Next steps

The commitment’s implementation would benefit from further specification of both covered activities. The IRM researchers recommend the following in this regard:

• To the MPALSG:
  • Define precisely whether this commitment is related to the media only or the other associations as well, and clarify which bodies will implement the commitment;
  • Define precisely the content of data from public calls that will be published and provide guidance on what is necessary to have the web page content in a machine-readable form;
• The Guide should contain the guidelines on the websites’ content previously developed by the former eGovernment Directorate;

To the Ministry of Culture:

• Define in the Guide the precise criteria for granting media and association applicants, with additional specific criteria related to the geographical scope of activities and the project or activity planned in line with the public interest.

4. Opening data from public calls for financing work of associations and media development

Completion: Substantial:

The legal framework relevant for this commitment is in place. Namely, in December 2018, the government approved a decree regulating conditions for developing and maintaining websites of public bodies. [39] The decree prescribes that bodies publish machine-readable content on their web pages. [40] This piece of legislation, however, does not explicitly mandate publishing results of public calls in open data format, but implies this practice within the rather general provision. Although the Office for IT and eGovernment developed some instructive material to encourage opening of data, [41] the remaining activity from this commitment, to develop a specific guide for opening data on public calls, is not complete. [42] It is not known how many and which institutions, if any, currently open data from public calls for financing civil society and media.