With the new National Strategy for Prevention of Corruption, the Anti-Corruption Committee demands that the financing of the paid political campaigning of parties from the budget during elections to be abolished . It stressed that the budgetary financing of a paid political program for an election campaign is a potential risk of corruption and producing a clientele relation”.
“Due to the nature of their activity and the great influence on the creation of public opinion, the media have a significant benefit of public finances. In reality, the spending of public funds and budgetary financial assets on part of state institutions is mostly done in an on-transparent way, selectively, with privileges and absence of accountability and monitoring over the granting and use of financial aid. The financing of the paid political program for an election campaign is a potential risk of corruption and the creation of a clientele relation” states the strategy.
The strategy states that the problem is formally described as “Lack of mechanism and criteria of efficient monitoring of financing of media campaigns during the election process” and the cure, according to the Anti Corruption Committee is “abolishing the budgetary financing of paid political advertising of parties’ election cycles”.
This measure has been elaborated in the strategy’s action plan. The Committee has planned that by the end of 2020, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration will form a working group for changes in the Election Code and the Parliament will adopt these changes. Thus it will stop the budgetary financing of the election campaigns in the media.
