The Center for Civic Education (CEO) said that by conducting research on financial allocations for the media in Montenegro, within the project "Equal opportunities for all media", they had two goals.
"First of all, to contribute to raising the awareness of the interested public about the responsible spending of money from the Budget of Montenegro, by pointing out the relationship that the public sector has towards the media through financial allocations, but also to point out how the Law on Free Access to Information is applied", it is stated in CGE announcement signed by program coordinator Ana Vujošević.
It is added that this research has been conducted for the third year in a row and has proven to be a well-founded way of proving the state's relationship with certain media in Montenegro.
"Unfortunately, this year's findings also point to the disorganization of this area and the consequent unequal treatment of the media by public sector bodies. The research itself is methodologically based on the application of the Law on Free Access to Information and all research findings are based exclusively on official documents of public sector bodies, which were the subject of research," the announcement reads.
According to them, in the conclusions of the document, it is clearly stated that, despite all the efforts and months of research, the CGE did not receive all the requested data, which underlines the inadequate application of this Law.
"When it comes to the position of the Radio Herceg Novi Council, the CGE expected that their reaction and sharp criticism would be directed towards those responsible from the Municipality of Herceg Novi, bearing in mind the findings presented and the indisputable proof (attachment) where the Municipality of Herceg Novi states that the radio Herceg Novi paid the amount of EUR 251.396.00, while the Radio Herceg Novi Council claims that they did not receive any financial resources in 2013," the announcement states.
The CGE says that they express concern if the Council's claims are true about the fate of the mentioned money and they assess that this information goes beyond the objectives of this CGE investigation, but that it should arouse the interest of the competent authorities, above all the prosecutor's office.
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