All 14 non-governmental organizations that submitted Duško Vuković's candidacy for a member of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services for the media sector meet the legal requirements to be nominators, so there was no reason for the President of the Parliament to withdraw the public invitation for the appointment of one member from the media sector and another proposed by the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU) and the Montenegrin PEN Center, according to the documentation that "Vijesti" had access to.
The candidacy of Vuković, president of the Media Center Assembly and a long-time journalist and media analyst, was supported by 14 NGOs with documentation submitted on January 24, NGO Linija supported the president of the Cetinje Journalists Association and former member of the RTCG council, Nikola Vujanović, with an application dated January 19. The Montenegrin PEN Center, in its application dated January 23, nominated Jelena Šušanj, assistant professor at the Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature.
Vuković was supported by Sua Sponte Bar, the Center for Civic Education, the Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro, Multimedia Montenegro Bijelo Polje, the Media Association of Southeast Europe, the Bijelo Polje Democratic Center, the Media Institute, Nova - Center for Feminist Culture, the Center for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG), Đakomo Adriatik, the Association of Youth with Disabilities, the Center of the North, Media Center and the NGO Boka.
Their applications were submitted on January 24, the last day of the deadline, and Mandić withdrew the public invitation on the same day, due to a “technical error.” The explanation for his decision to withdraw the invitation suggests that some human rights NGOs might get “confused” and support a candidate for Council member from the media field.
The criteria for non-governmental organizations as proposers in the field of human rights and the media are prescribed by the new Law on Audiovisual Media Services, which was adopted in June last year.
According to Article 150, an NGO can be a proposer for these two areas if, among other things, in the previous three years prior to the publication of the advertisement, the annual budget for the implementation of activities in the area in which it proposes a candidate was not less than 3.000 euros, and if in the same period at least 2.000 euros were spent during one year for the implementation of activities in the specified area.
If, as stated in the law (Article 157), NGOs submit multiple separate proposals, the candidate that has the support of the largest number of organizations that meet the prescribed requirements must be included in the list determined by the Administrative Board.
Media Center Director Goran Đurović told ''Vijesti'' that all NGOs that supported Vuković met the requirements and that this should have been checked by the Administrative Board. He said last week that Mandić's decision to withdraw the ad was political, because he realized that the "majority candidate" would not pass, referring to Milan Radović from the Civic Alliance.
The Council has five members (one of whom is elected president), and they are candidates from universities, NGOs dealing with the protection of human rights and freedoms, NGOs in the field of media, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Montenegrin PEN Center, and the Bar Association of Montenegro.
On Friday, when the 45-day deadline for applications was expiring, Mandić announced on the social network X that he had withdrawn the public call after the Administrative Committee of the Assembly informed him that the advertisement contained a technical error, which was "pointed out to the Committee by the non-governmental sector."
Mandić withdrew the invitation at the request of the NGO Forum Progres, because the explanation cited articles of the law that define the general conditions under which NGOs can nominate candidates.
On January 22, Bojana Jokić from Forum Progress sent an initiative to Mandić and the President of the Administrative Board, Jelena Nedović (PES), stating that the invitation contained a technical error "which may call into question the success of the implementation of the election in question", and the decision on the election could be challenged in court.
She recalled that the mandate of the member of the Agency Council who was elected from among authorized proposers from NGOs in the field of media has expired and believes that the invitation should "specify that only authorized proposers from NGOs in the field of media have the right to propose", although this is clearly stated in the title of the invitation.
Mandić's decision, published on the Parliament's website, states that the initiative states that, in accordance with the terms of the public call, an NGO can nominate a candidate for a member of the Agency's Council if it meets the following conditions: "In its founding act and statute, as the main goals and tasks of its activities, it has issues from the areas referred to in Article 148, paragraph 1, items 2 and 3 of the Law on Audiovisual Media Services and has continuously dealt with these issues in the previous three years prior to the publication of the public call for nominating candidates for members of the Agency's Council."
"Given that point 2 of the relevant article of the Law refers to NGOs engaged in the protection of human rights and freedoms, to which the relevant call does not apply, but refers exclusively to NGOs in the field of media, the aforementioned technical error, as stated, could jeopardize the entire election process, and it could later be challenged before the competent court," reads Mandić's decision, published on the Parliament's website.
Mandić's decision shows that on January 21, the Administrative Board formed a working group to review the documentation of the candidates. On January 22, Jokić sent his initiative to cancel the public invitation to Mandić and Jelena Nedović, and the Administrative Board informed Mandić about this on January 23, who withdrew the invitation the following day.
Mandić announced the announcement for the election of two members of the Agency Council on December 10th after "Vijesti" announced that the mandate of representatives of NGOs in the field of media, Milan Radović, and the Montenegrin PEN Center, Rajko Todorović, lasts until December, so the head of parliament had to announce the announcement for their successors at least six months ago.
A group of NGOs (Media Center, Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro, Human Rights Action (HRA), Media Institute and Center for Civic Education) sent a request to Mandić on Monday, seeking a reasoned explanation regarding the cancellation of the public call.
Goran Đurović said that they have not received a response from Mandić so far.
"We believe that Mandic needs time to come up with a response that can hide the manipulation motivated by a political decision to keep the AVM Services Agency under political influence and not allow it to become further professionalized," said Đurović.
"Sooner or later Mandić has to announce a new call"
Đurović said that a group of NGOs will address the EU and international organizations regarding Mandić's decision to withdraw the public call for members of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services.
Đurović said that they believe the decision is illegal and that the EU and international organizations will ask Mandić how he wants to join the Union when laws are being violated and the procedures and actions that are a condition for entry are being blocked.
Đurović believes that Mandić's accomplice in this process is Prime Minister Milojko Spajić because the Administrative Committee of the Parliament, instead of ignoring Bojana Jokić's "meaningless letter", delivered "ordered information" to the President of the Parliament, which served as an alibi for making an illegal decision.
"Sooner or later, Mandić must issue a new call and then an even larger number of NGOs will support a credible candidate in the media field... Mandić is only further compromising himself, if that is even possible. As a reminder, the DPS did the same thing and went into opposition," said Đurović.
Radović gathered support, but did not respond to the invitation
For the application to the public call that was subsequently canceled, support and documentation for the candidacy were also collected by Milan Radović, a recent member of the AMU Council, a long-time member of the RTCG Council, and the program director of the Civic Alliance.
"Vijesti" learned that he sought and received support from at least three Montenegrin non-governmental organizations.
Radović did not answer the question of whether he intended to apply for the call-up and why he ultimately did not apply.
He said that "we can talk about any topic" when "Vijesti" published his denial.
Last week, "Vijesti" mistakenly announced that Radović had also applied for the invitation, but did not publish his response, because it was not in accordance with the Media Law.
The editorial team has since published a correction and apologized to Radović.
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