Media regulation is a response to demands from the public and media players to correct inefficient or unfair market practices. The media protect citizens from abuse by economic and political elites, which is not the main pursuit best suited to commercial interests. State aid to the media is all the more important to ensure that audiences get the content they need, not just want. There is no much information on the effectiveness of the Slovenian media grant, nor is it clear what objectives within the pursuit of pluralism it is trying to achieve and how. Meanwhile, media experts have been pointing out for almost twenty years the undefined nature of the grant criteria, the short duration of the tender and the lack of a concrete explanation of the decision of the expert committee, which has to explain whether or not it will accept a submitted media project for co-funding. The specific reasons for the decisions of the expert committee remain unknown. Two media outlets Oštro, which falls under grant area A, and Radio Študent, which falls under grant area B, were successful in their administrative appeals against the rejection of the committee. On the basis of their decisions and evaluations of the calls since 2006, I have checked whether the call criteria allow the committee to overlook quality projects, which specific features of each year's call were highlighted in the evaluations and whether the legislators have taken the suggestions for improvement into account.
|