“Parts of the “Platform” presented yesterday by the leaders of several parties from the opposition led by the DPS, and supported by several independent MPs, as well as the reaction of the ruling parties, showed how much the parties involved in this process care about respecting the law, professional institutions, the interests of citizens and the very principles of the EU,” states the Media Center press release signed by the director of that organization, Goran Đurović.
The Media Center considers the part of the document related to the RTCG to be problematic because party agreements cannot be made around an institution that must act as independent and professional.
“If today you make political agreements contrary to the law, then you are opening up the space for the issue of RTCG and all other independent institutions and regulators to be raised again when a new political crisis occurs. The political crisis, including this one, exists solely because the institutions are not professional and independent in their actions,” the statement said.
In the “Platform” it is stated in paragraph 1 in article 4, it was announced, that it is necessary to solve the problem of the election of the general director “in accordance with the valid legislation, principles of institutional responsibility and standards of independence of the public service, including full professionalization of the management of the public service”.
“The illegally elected general director of the RTCG, Boris Raonic, should be subject to more serious work by the judicial authorities and public criticism, including NGOs and political parties, but this long-standing problem cannot be found in any document that implies political party agreements because it would only show how captive our judiciary is and how much influence political parties exert on the state prosecution and courts,” the statement added.
How is it, asked Đurović, that DPS and its partners imagined that PES and NSD would promise them that court decisions would be implemented and Raonic would leave office.
“The general director of RTCG Raonic is irrelevant, the essence is the rule of law which should lead us to a professional institution. Professional institutions are reached through good legal procedures that must be respected and with the will of political parties, courts, prosecutors, that the laws are applied. This, of course, with the prerequisite that pariahs care about the best in society getting the opportunity to perform responsible functions. If there is no such awareness and will, all the “Platforms” are for naught. The media center is still in 2021, before the election of Raonic, indicated that it does not meet the conditions prescribed by the law, which were confirmed by the courts. The rule of law and the protection of independent (media) institutions was important to us, and to the parties of the government and the opposition, whether they would be able to control the institutions through obedient persons. That is why in 2021, all parties were silent.”
DPS, PES, NSD, and other “negotiators” if they already want EU standards and the acceleration of the integration process, believes Đurović from the Media Center, they should offer solutions regarding the reform of judicial power, when the barren Judicial Council cannot do that.
“”Negotiators” should offer constitutional and legal solutions that will allow him to be transferred to the basic court or remain without judicial office, a judge of the High Court, who, contrary to legal science, the position of the majority of his colleagues, passes a judgment claiming that the time spent illegally in office is recognized as legal work experience. This interpretation equates (and even gives an advantage to) a person who violated the law when being elected to office compared to people who legally gained work experience. That would be a “Platform” worthy of praise. In the first year the faculty taught us that right cannot be born from wrong. The judge of the High Court decided that it can, and now the Supreme Court will deliberate for the next three years whether to return the procedure to the beginning and what position to take,” said the Media Center.
To remind the public, Đurović added, that the RTCG Council, which since 2021 illegally elected Raonic to the position of general director several times, was elected according to the law passed by DPS (in June 2020, before he lost power), which enabled the majority in the Assembly to choose members of the Council from among NGOs based on personal and party preferences.
“The DPS law was the basis for appointing Veselin Drljević as the president of the RTCG Council, who had the support of a single NGO (which does not have any activities). On the abuse of official position by Drljević and three other members of the RTCG Council due to disobeying the court verdict and the illegal re-election of Raonic to office in 2023, a final verdict in the High Court has been waiting for a year. Will this change the “Platform” of the DPS, PES, NDS, Democrats and partner”, it was announced from the Media Center.
The second paragraph of Article 4 is, it is said, even sadder and proof that this Platform was written by people who absolutely do not care about respecting the law, and they sent it to other people (the government) who also absolutely do not care about the application of the law.
“In paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the “Platform” it is written: “At the same time, during the election of four members of the RTCG Council, the election will be carried out exclusively with the previously reached agreement of the government and the opposition, that is, with the consent of the opposition, with the aim of ensuring the professional and independent functioning of the Public Service.” The Law on RTCG was adopted in June 2024 as part of the IBAR Law and was amended at the last minute before adoption in the Assembly by order of Milojko Spajić (in order to ease the criteria to enable Raonic to be illegally re-elected to the post of General Director). However, the Law on RTCG prescribes good procedures for the appointment of members of the RTCG Council,” added the Media Center announcement.
The media laws adopted as part of the IBAR law in 2024 are, it is stated, the only legal acts with which we as a society can be satisfied.
“In accordance with the Law on RTCG, the role of the government and the opposition is not to agree on candidates for members of the RTCG Council, but exclusively to check in the Administrative Committee whether the documentation submitted by the candidates is correct, to determine which representative of the authorized proposers from the ranks of NGOs had more support from those NGOs that put forward demanding conditions (at least 3000 euros annual budget in the last three years in the area in which they propose a candidate), to determine the final unified list of candidates, which then at the plenary session should the deputies vote. The procedure was designed to prevent the parties from colluding. This procedure was not only supported by the EU Delegation when the government tried to change the media laws and continue to control the RTCG.
It is added that the media laws were worked on for three years, due to the obstruction in the Parliament, the director of the media directorate in the Ministry of Culture and Media, Neđeljko Rudović, resigned, and now the DPS would “negotiate” with partners from the opposition and the government about the candidates already proposed by entities authorized by law.
“Thanks to the new media laws, we got a professional Agency for Audiovisual Media Services, and we are on our way to get new members of the Council, some of whom will not be party soldiers like these until now. Whether that will be enough to start the process of freeing the RTCG from the party influence of the government remains to be seen. In order to apply the law and free the RTCG from the party influence, the opposition only needs to, in accordance with the law, check the documents of the candidates for the RTCG Council with the ruling parties, and not agree on candidate. Even the EUD will not allow such a thing because it is the obligation of Montenegro (of which the opposition and the government obviously know little) to further harmonize its media and other laws with the EU Law on Media Freedom, which prohibits any interference of parties in the work of public broadcasters,” the Media Center said in a statement.
The government’s reaction to the offered Platform was not, it is added, related to principles, because they don’t have them either, but to a meaningless story about uniting the opposition.
“Let us remind you that for 15 months the government obstructed the implementation of the Law on Audiovisual Media Services in the Parliament in order to try to exert influence in the Council of this Agency and choose a candidate that is to their liking. PES MP Jelena Nedović even publicly ordered NGOs to change their candidate because it is not to the government’s liking. The goal of the government was that the Agency does not do its job and that propaganda content with hate speech, such as the recent ones that were broadcast On May 21, they broadcast without any sanctions. In addition, the authorities in the capital illegally prevented the appointment of a candidate of RTV Podgorica over which they have no control. The authorities in Andrijevica illegally dismissed the director of Radio Andrijevica over whom they have no control,” the statement said.
“Plafroma”, as Đurović added, showed that the majority of the opposition, as well as the authorities, care only about the control of institutions and not about EU standards.
“If it were not so, by now they would have chosen the best candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court, members of the Fiscal Council, the Judicial Council and the Prosecutor’s Council. By now they would have had an agreed election model with open lists, but no one mentions that anymore. The current government is not aware that the bad and undemocratic normative solutions in the Law on ANB and the Law on Internal Affairs will return to it like a boomerang, just as the Law returned to the DPS and also to the citizens about the RTCG from June 2020, which was adopted by the DPS”, reads the press release of the Media Center.
It is unfortunate, said Đurović, that the EU Delegation and the European Commission care more about Montenegro’s entry into the EU than most of our political parties.
“It is unfortunate that the parties that have the most support from citizens do not think about the professionalization of institutions, but only about replacing control. We hope that, knowing all this, the EU will introduce special protective clauses in the accession agreement of Montenegro (relating to the rule of law, the media) because, unfortunately, we will not have a dominant political elite (the political majority in the Assembly) for a long time that will want the best for all citizens, which is best manifested through the rule of law and the professionalization of institutions, which they all work in the same way”, the Media Center announced.
