I rarely wander into one of Pink's channels for more than ten seconds, but one night the devil gave me no peace, I broke into the middle of a show while they were talking about the war for peace. Milutin Mrkonjić from espees, consistently as always, persistently defended his leader.
Former member of the Democratic Party, Jelena Trivan, who remembers Slobodan Milošević's war performance relatively well, could not remember the exploits of the recent Serbian leader, Aleksandar Vučić, from that dark era.
I can't stand flyovers, I was just about to change the channel, when Ratko Dmitrović spoke. The former star of RTS's combative Dnevnik Dnevnik and its even more combative Dodat, which was regularly shown here every evening, not only flew by, but surpassed her from '91...
- I know that many will not believe me, but I never supported Milosevic. I didn't even mention him in the texts during the war, and not otherwise except when I criticized him?!
***
It's not a joke at someone else's expense, the consequences of collective amnesia are terrible in Montenegro as well. Half of the wartime generation not only believed that the reports from the front were the living truth, but during the three decades that followed, they did not suspect that it was all one huge lie. Made up of millions of smaller lies that still determine the fate of all the inhabitants of this country.
Lie after lie, such were the reports about the causes, course and consequences of the war. Reporters can share the blame for this with politicians, but that will not make journalistic crime any less.
What kind of diaries they were, an hour and a half and longer. And then the Battlefield Supplement, so much more. Every night, several companies of the JNA managed to "fiercely retaliate against even fiercer enemy attacks". Necessarily unprovoked, it doesn't matter that there is shooting in Croatia and BiH, and the army arrived from this side of the Drina.
Enemy losses were increasing night by night, in the smallest village by one hundred, two hundred, sometimes even five hundred. Some are liquidated by the army, and some by the people, in every report completely bare-handed. If someone had collected the victims only of that first autumn and winter, Croatia would have capitulated before New Year's 92...
***
In the meantime, patriotic Montenegrin journalists learned their trade from their brothers' example. And perfected it to the point of absurdity. So much so that the breaking news and the key proof that foreign mercenaries are fighting on the opposite side was a box of foreign cigarettes, an "easy strike" if I'm not mistaken... And a copy of the Monitor allegedly found on the battlefield is confirmation that the Montenegrin "Ustasha are guarding the backs of the Croatian brothers". ..
The best students of the Balkan war school of lies, honor to the exceptions that were promptly removed, were TVCG journalists. I don't know how many students of those war students are now in the so-called public service, but the matrix is the same as in '91.
Never, at any cost, never question what the government says. No verification, no questions, no other side's truth...
***
- We work in the service of the state - this spring, the general director explained very well why TVCG is not and cannot become a public service for all citizens, despite the fact that they pay for it. And that is why he has been participating in the pre-election campaign of Depees for days in the same way as three decades ago.
Rožaje will get a new kindergarten for one and a half million euros. The city market will cost 900.000. The contract for the construction of the cable car on Hajla is worth 13,5 million, including a new road, a new bypass and tens of millions more, which of course are provided by the Government.
Where does the Government come from, aren't the citizens paying for it?... Well, that's what the prime minister said, and not a single code says that the use of brains is mandatory when reporting...
***
Cover for the prime minister - a picture of Rožaj, the same as decades before. A neglected town, dilapidated houses, only cafes and betting shops shine. But also the beaming faces of local officials, even though they don't remember the last time they received a salary...
There is also a journalist, discreet to the point of pain... He does not dare to ask if the prime minister knows what they live on. And because of whom they and the others live like that. And how are they even alive, not only the people of Rožaj, but everyone in the north. Whose economic possibilities the government noticed after 30 years.
The last time such questions could be heard on TVCG exactly one year ago. When Andrijana Kadija and Vladan Mićunović were dismissed, after Goran Đurović and Nikola Vukčević were expelled from the Council...
***
All of them were dismissed illegally, even the judiciary, trapped like this, had to confirm it. Against so many facts and obvious evidence of violation of the law, it could not do anything either. But TVCG can, just as it could in '91. Not that there is no place for traitors in office, but their judicial rehabilitation cannot be in Dnevnik either.
But it can, and extensively, the depees campaign in the north. I can, even more extensively, assess that the courts work under political pressure, I guess that's why the editors ignore the mentioned judgments. There is also room for how the former Minister of Agriculture contemplates the autocephaly of the churches. Macron's pessimism about the Balkans is also allowed, nothing from the European Union even in the next decade. He also found a few minutes for two or three letters of credit, summer school of diplomacy, roaming prices...
Only in half an hour of Dnevnik, not even twenty seconds were found for the most important simple sentence of that day - the verdict that Andrijana Kadija was illegally dismissed became final...
***
Does anyone else remember why Kadija was dismissed in the first place? I don't mean fundamentally, it is logical that an autocratic and corrupt government does not tolerate free journalists and media, but formally...
For those who forgot - because of a contract with an NGO. Which was first assessed as harmful by a competing NGO. After that same project got away from her because - she was late to apply. - The independence of the Public Service is threatened - protested a member of the Council at the time, allegedly trying to prevent someone from the civil sector from choosing guests on national television.
Now they are all, without supposedly, according to depees. And not only the guests, but even more so the hosts. That's why the former director can't even go to Dnevnik, let alone return to her position, although in a normal country it would be quite logical.
An apology to Kadija and Mićunović for the accusations that "anti-state coalitions are in the balance", that they are "waging a special war against the state" and that they are "criminogenic, unethical and unprofessional" would be expected, but none of that...
***
- We know that many will not believe us, but we never supported Milo Đukanović. We didn't even mention him except when we criticized him - he will copy TVCG Ratko Dmitrović, just like in the nineties...
Provided that its actual editor-in-chief ever decides to leave the government on his own. Because with these kinds of services, not only media services, it won't be any other way...
PS This wonderland is truly a wonder. Saša Sinđelić was arrested on an Interpol warrant and is awaiting extradition to Croatia. And just two weeks ago, the same civil servants almost shed tears because the hero who saved Montenegro from blood to his knees had to seek salvation from terror in his homeland. And he came to us, covered in wounds, over paths and riches.
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