The Voice of the Local Community: Initiatives That Show Why Ordinary Stories Matter

Local issues and initiatives are often what most directly shape citizens’ everyday lives. It is precisely at the local level that the problems people face are most clearly visible — from air quality and water supply to access to social rights or the way institutions communicate with citizens. Still, despite their importance, such topics often remain on the margins of attention and lose space in the media to news about high politics, various daily conflicts, or events that fall under the category of “sensational.”

Still, experience shows that local stories often have a much wider reach than it may seem at first glance. Initiatives that emerge in one community often raise questions that are recognizable in other towns and municipalities as well. Problems such as pollution, outdated коммунal infrastructure, unequal access to social protection, or irresponsible reporting on sensitive topics are never limited to one place, one situation, or one moment.

That is why initiatives that try to offer solutions to such problems are also highly relevant to the wider public. In order to reach it, a number of things need to “fall into place,” and local media also play an important role in that process. They are closest to the communities where these issues arise, are often the first to recognize questions that matter to citizens, and are among the few who actually understand them — and know how to report on them.

Although their reporting struggles to surface in a sea of other content, it is repeatedly shown that good cooperation between civil society organizations that launch initiatives and journalists who follow the life of local communities contributes significantly to better, faster, and ultimately more relevant informing of citizens. Also, this cooperation opens space for a broader public discussion about problems that require systemic solutions.

With precisely that goal, as part of the event “The Voice of the Local” within the project “ACT – for a Stronger Civil Society” implemented by the teams of Helvetas and Civic Initiatives and financed by the Government of Switzerland, civil society organizations presented concrete proposals for improving public policies and solving problems faced by citizens in different parts of Serbia.

“If we look at the bigger picture, as much as 70% of the laws adopted in the process of Serbia’s accession to the European Union will be implemented at the local level — in municipalities and cities. That has a direct impact on the people who live there. We believe that cooperation between the media and associations can be much better. The organizations we invited represent certain groups of citizens who often do not have enough space in the media, both at the local and national level,” said Marko Rakić of Helvetas.

The event gathered journalists from local media outlets from Niš, Vranje, Leskovac, Kruševac, Užice, Požega, and Novi Sad, who had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the initiatives, talk to their initiators, and receive additional context for topics concerning local communities.

At the beginning of the event, participants spoke about the importance of connecting civil society organizations and the media, especially in communities where local topics often struggle to reach a wider audience. Participants pointed out that open communication between organizations that initiate change and journalists who follow the work of institutions can contribute to greater transparency, but also encourage more responsible and inclusive decision-making at the local level.

During the event, several initiatives were presented dealing with different areas of public life — from the protection of children’s rights in the media to environmental quality, social protection, and public utility infrastructure. Through short presentations, the organizations presented the problems they had identified in their communities, but also proposals for concrete solutions that could improve existing public policies or institutional practice.

 

One of the topics was also how stories reach local media in the first place, and then how it is possible for major media outlets to “pick them up” as well. Large systems often function by inertia, so it is not impossible for national media to run a story about an event in Oslo because it is easily available and “packaged” by news agencies, while a key story from a smaller town in Serbia is never published.

“In the last two decades, media infrastructure has changed significantly. Many newsrooms have over time abolished their local bureaus and networks of correspondents, so stories from smaller communities are increasingly rare in national media. That does not mean there is no interest in such stories — on the contrary, it often turns out that local topics can attract a great deal of attention when they are properly presented and placed in a broader context,” said Pavle Zlatić of Nedeljnik.

As he noted, the problem often also lies in the fact that there is no clear and established model of cooperation between local media, initiatives, and major newsrooms, so many important stories simply do not reach audiences outside the communities where they originated.

“In practice, it happens that local media and organizations uncover important topics that could also be relevant at the national level, but without additional communication and cooperation those stories remain limited to a local reach. That is why it is important to have a more active exchange of information between newsrooms, but also for initiatives to be ready to present their topics more broadly,” he stressed.

Zlatić added that local topics have great potential to trigger broader public debate, especially when they point to problems that recur in different communities. When a local story is framed in a way that speaks to a broader social problem, it easily becomes relevant to national media as well. In such situations, cooperation between local journalists, organizations, and larger newsrooms can significantly contribute to bringing important issues to the wider public.

Similar challenges were also pointed out by journalists from local communities who took part in the discussion. They stated that cooperation with national newsrooms often depends on personal contacts, but also on how “visible” a certain topic is in the broader media space.

Journalists from local newsrooms stressed that serious issues from their communities often remain unnoticed at the national level, while greater attention is often given to content that is sensational or entertaining. At the same time, local newsrooms often work with very limited resources, so following complex topics — from environmental protection to local budgets or social policy — is an additional challenge for small teams.

The issue of local media capacity was also highlighted through the results of research presented by Civic Initiatives. As stated, there are currently around 165 local media outlets operating in Serbia, while just a few years ago there were close to two hundred. The majority are online portals, while print media have almost disappeared from local communities.

 

According to these data, more than half of local media outlets were established as for-profit legal entities, while around one-third were founded within citizens’ associations. The analysis also showed that these media outlets together have several million followers on social networks, but that their audience is distributed very unevenly — a large number of newsrooms have a relatively small reach and operate with minimal resources.

Despite this, local media often play a key role in launching public debates in their communities. As an example, the campaign to monitor air quality in Leskovac was mentioned, where local journalists, through continuous reporting, contributed to making this topic an important public issue.

Participants agreed that precisely because of such experiences, cooperation between civil society organizations and local media can have a significant impact — especially when topics that arise in local communities are presented in a way that makes them relevant to the wider public as well.

In the continuation of the event, organizations presented their advocacy initiatives.

In the continuation of the event, five advocacy initiatives were presented dealing with various problems citizens face in everyday life — from the protection of children in the media and access to water, to social protection and air quality.

 

Prijatelji dece Srbije: Protection of Children from Media Abuse

Prijatelji dece Srbije (Friends of Children of Serbia) presented an initiative for the protection of children from media abuse, warning that children in domestic media are still exposed to serious forms of sensationalism, exploitation, and violations of dignity. As stated, the problem lies not only in irresponsible reporting, but also in the fact that existing regulations and protection mechanisms often remain without real implementation.

“Children in the media space mostly appear as victims of tragedies and accidents, where reporting resorts to pure sensationalism, or in stories meant to provoke the audience’s empathy, where they are naked, hungry, poor, sick. In both cases, the result is the same — those children become permanently marked,” said Iva from the organization.

She warned that content published in the media remains permanently available and that the consequences of such reporting can follow a child for years.

“Today, when something appears in the media space, it is permanent and indelible,” she said, calling on journalists to pause before publishing and ask themselves a simple question: “Would I publish this if it were my child?”

The organization also announced additional guidelines for reporting on children in sensitive situations, with the message that the protection of children must not depend on the goodwill of individuals, but on clear standards and responsibility.

Polekol: Citizen Participation in Budget Planning for Secure Water Supply

The Polekol organization, that is, the Right to Water initiative, drew attention to the problem of water losses in water supply systems across Serbia and assessed that this is a major but insufficiently visible public issue. Representatives of the organization stated that the consequences of neglected infrastructure and insufficient investment are now visible in the everyday lives of a large number of citizens.

“We are here to talk about a problem that is enormous, but invisible. In Serbia, we lose 240 million cubic meters of water a year,” it was said during the presentation, with the explanation that this is “the volume of one Zlatar Lake.”

The organization warned that in many communities the water supply network has not been seriously renewed since the 1980s, while the system is mostly maintained through temporary and partial solutions. As emphasized, because of all this, one and a half million people in Serbia constantly or occasionally have no water.

Through this initiative, PoLEkol therefore calls on citizens to use petitions, public hearings, and other participation mechanisms in order to put pressure on local self-governments to invest more in the renewal of water supply infrastructure. The organization stressed that it has also developed concrete tools on its website so that citizens can more easily take part in budget processes and seek solutions to problems in their communities.

ŽUKO: Removing Discriminatory Effects in Social Protection

The campaign “How Much Is My Share?” was presented by the Women’s Association of the Kolubara District ŽUKO, which spoke about the discriminatory consequences that certain solutions within the social protection system have for women, especially when it comes to renouncing inheritance. As explained, in a large number of cases women still renounce their share of inheritance in favor of brothers or other family members, most often due to family pressure and established patterns of behavior.

“Forty-three percent of women renounce their share of inheritance, most often for the sake of peace in the house,” said Katarina from ŽUKO, adding that the consequences of such decisions are not only property-related, but also deeply social. The problem, as she explained, lies in Article 82 of the Law on Social Protection, under which renouncing property is treated as if the property had been gifted, so a person who has renounced inheritance may lose the right to social assistance for a very long period.

“When you divide the value of the property by the monthly amount of social benefits, in most cases you get that you have no right to social benefits for more than twenty years or thirty years,” she said. A particular problem, she added, is that “women most often do not even know that this article exists,” so they learn about its consequences only when they try to exercise their right to support. That is why this initiative seeks an amendment to the law and the limitation of the duration of such consequences, following the example of solutions that already exist in the region.

Hrabriša: Improving Access to the Right to an Allowance for Assistance and Care by Another Person

The Hrabriša association from Novi Sad presented an initiative to improve access to the right to an allowance for assistance and care by another person, pointing to the discrepancy between the law and the rulebooks applied in practice. As stated, even when the law provides for certain rights, families of children with rare diseases and other severe conditions often encounter administrative obstacles, because the rulebooks of medical commissions do not recognize all the legal grounds that exist in the law.

“In those very rulebooks, not all legal grounds that exist in the law are provided for,” said Milana from the Hrabriša Association, explaining that this leads to situations in which a child or another person, although meeting the legal requirements, in practice cannot exercise the right to the allowance. Representatives of the organization also gave a concrete example of a child with a severe and permanent illness, who is completely dependent on the assistance of another person, but whose condition the commission could not adequately assess precisely because of the limitations in the rulebook. The goal of the initiative is to align the rulebook with the law, in order to shorten procedures and reduce the number of cases in which families have to wage lengthy administrative and court battles. “Parents of children should direct their capacities toward the recovery of their children and toward supporting their children, not toward fighting bureaucracy,” it was said during the presentation.

Tim 42: Improving Air Quality in Leskovac

Tim 42 from Leskovac presented an initiative to improve air quality, assessing that this problem continues to be relativized in the local public, despite serious state monitoring data. Representatives of the organization pointed out that the local self-government still relies on outdated or incomplete data, while official measurements show a much more serious picture.

“When you ask the local self-government, Leskovac breathes clean or slightly polluted air,” it was said during the presentation. “When you read the data measured by the state monitoring station during 2025, the air in Leskovac is the most polluted in Serbia in terms of PM particle concentration.” The organization stated that the city now has a legal obligation to begin drafting an air quality plan, but that it is crucial for that plan to be based on real, up-to-date, and locally relevant data, not on formal documents without practical effect. As emphasized, “officially, we have 141 days with exceedances over the permitted 35,” which clearly points to the scale of the problem. Team 42 also presented a digital register of polluters, as a tool that can help both the public and the media to map sources of pollution more precisely and monitor the effects of measures. “More than 400 citizens of Leskovac lose their lives prematurely due to polluted air in the city. That is not just statistics,” representatives of the organization said, calling for this issue to be treated as a matter of public health, not merely an administrative obligation.

At the end of the presentations, the organizers invited journalists and representatives of organizations to connect and, in the coming period, work together on media content that would bring these issues closer to citizens and open space for a broader public debate.