Practice of allocating budgetary resources among media for the release of information and advertisement
The goal of the present research is to study the practice and procedures of allocation of public funds to media outlets for the purpose of advertising and information support. The research also involves the findings of media monitoring aimed to demonstrate what type of information is financed from the budget and whether budgetary funds have an influence on media content; how much the standards set by advertising legislation, code of conduct and professional ethics are observed. The research also reviews the international practice and the forms of soft censorship after the example of various countries. The document provides recommendations on improving current shortcomings and using the materials financed by administrative authorities in a pre-election period. The guidelines related to soft censorship developed by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) have been taken into consideration in the process of developing the recommendations.
