I got a message the other day from a regular reader, interesting enough to be friends if that would make sense in the seventh decade.

She writes to me that she likes the columns, she added some nicer words, but it is not polite to highlight myself more than this form of journalism allows. Nor, like my colleagues from TVCG, do I have the habit of publishing everything as I get it...

- The ones about public service are the best for you, do you really watch that show every day - he asks and adds a sign of surprise.

- I've been watching for more than three years, all the dailies on all domestic channels and almost all the shows and interviews on political and social topics, why do you ask?

- Uh, I'm surprised you haven't gone crazy yet - she replied shortly.

- Can't you still see that I am - I wrote her off as a joke...

***

And I wasn't kidding, I get some attacks more and more often. Not really madness, it's more like a crazy desire to smash someone's head through the screen, when it's already forbidden to do so directly. Is it possible that three decades after the war, the Television of Montenegro did not break their heads... And that they justify the scandalous reporting on the attack on the journalist Dan Vladimir Otašević by saying that they "published everything as they received it"... Well, that's exactly what happened. the basis for the indictment, TVCG also forced the war for peace with the lies it broadcast as they came to it from various sources, known under the common name Služba... I would not want it to turn out as an ominous prediction, but also the most dangerous pre-war lie that the Balkans legs, the one about 40 dead in Pakrac, that television "published as it was received"...

***

Who followed the latest scandal in the sequels, knows what it is about. Which does not mean, if he only watched TVCG, that he understood what happened to journalist Dan...

He almost passed as his colleagues from Vijesti, when it turned out that the editor-in-chief and the photo-reporter beat up the mayor, his successor and bodyguard, and then broke their own bones and punctured their eardrums...

That Vladimir Otašević was attacked because he was doing his job, TVCG didn't even announce it until the attackers needed a defense... But we didn't catch him even though we had a reason, he was filming our private gathering without permission, look at the evidence from another camera.. .

Without permission? A private gathering? Well, you don't need permission to film public officials. Especially when the state prosecutor and the businessman make their association public under the scrutiny of the prosecutor's office. With the active participation of a third party who is paid to be the bodyguard of all citizens, not just selected...

***

Subsequently, that famous shot from the second camera was also shown, only after it had gone through the scissors and editing. Television or Service, it doesn't matter.

It is not unimportant, however, that the Prime Minister DM told the public just a few days earlier that this kind of television "represents the character of our country" and "has state attributes"...

- We published everything as we received it - the editors could also be right, provided that they wanted to explain the causes of the collapse of the public service.

The most expensive in the Balkans, but not only in terms of the hours of the program produced, but also in terms of the consequences that the program has on the mental health of the population.

All three Diaries and News of every hour, every word of all three presidents, every contribution that glorifies the government, even the one in the educational program from which writers fed up with paid patriotism address the nation... - all this is published by TVCG "as it was received". it's been thirty years...

***

I am afraid that all the conditions have been met so that Montenegro will not get a real public media service even in the next thirty years.

Why? First but not least, the government is completely delighted with its image on the screen, it would not change anything as long as the budget can withstand it. And this one of ours is durable beyond the world, it still exists despite the looted billions.

Second, only strangers can trust Brussels, despite the fact that it is often advertised on this occasion. When they said from there that the public service should be freed from political pressure, all political parties except Depees and satellites disappeared from the screen.

When they start defending journalistic professionalism, the regime purges all professionals from both the Council and the Collegium. And the officials from Brussels immediately write another letter.

For decades, the same explanation has been given to the objection that the cadres of the ruling party are excessively privileged. And, no, no, they are there as representatives of the state, when another government comes, it will have the same position.

And they will, and that's the third reason why I don't hope for a normal public service in my lifetime. Most of the opposition leaders would give up on the changes they are now demanding immediately after coming to power. They would bring in their director, he would bring in his editors, and then again - you asked, look...

***

Who's to tell them that he didn't ask for it, maybe the public? Unfortunately - and this is the fourth reason why we will be watching a repainted Montenegro on RTCG for a long time - this public is made up not only biologically, but even more so politically, descendants of the one from the nineties.

When 80 percent of the public believed that 30.000 Ustashas rushed over Debeli Brijeg, even though the most zealous journalist managed to show us only one grandmother in black.

Uh, I'll never forget that snort under the moustache... Well, dear viewers, you've now seen how even age is no obstacle to cooperation with the Ustashas. And we are looking at an unfortunate old woman who does not know what has befallen her and does not speak out of fear...

***

Out of fear or because of money, profession and mental tendency to polity, you name it, but in those nineties the voices of rebellion of TVCG journalists were as quiet as today. And motivated by the same reasons as today, mostly personal.

That silence with a terrifying echo is the fifth and most important reason why we will not soon hear the truth, the full truth and only the truth from the state screen.

It will be like that until the journalists from that home, which is less gray on the outside than on the inside, raise their voices outside the studio as well. For starters, there doesn't have to be a lot of them. As many as there were in Pobjeda, in a much more dangerous time, are enough.

***

Before the war, that printed public service of the government had about 150 journalists, approximately as many as TVCG today. But, due to the monstrous editorial policy, and despite the commissioner's directorial powers, at least ten percent refused to publish anything "as we received it".

And not only that, they made their rebellion public, in Liberal, Monitor and other free media throughout SFRY, in all anti-war actions and at all protests.

And because of that, they were all persecuted or sheltered, left without wages and suspended. That is why their pensions are now a third less than those who not only published, but also wrote exclusively what they received.

And I don't remember anyone writing a complaint because of personal status. Nor do I ever hear from those who are still among us that they regret the sacrifice they made...

P.S. And I could now write a lot of instructive details from that era, about the way in which Olja Obradović, Momir M. Marković, Ljubiša Mitrović fought for the dignity of the profession and freedom of public speech... It's no use, they don't read my columns in TVCG. And even if they do, they will have a ready answer - why fight when they didn't win... They didn't, but it's enough that they spread the virus of rebellion. Against which, apparently, the so-called journalists public service collectively vaccinated...