The Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro (DPNCG) expects the Government to support the agreed provisions of the Draft Law on Media, the implementation of which could be a good basis for a more professional performance of journalistic work and a more responsible attitude of the state towards journalists and the media as a whole.
All this, as pointed out by the Management Board of the DPNCG, provided that the provisions remain in line with good European practice, as they are mostly written in the Draft.
The draft law, they remind, included a provision proposed by the DPNCG and the Association of Journalists of Montenegro, that "the state guarantees the work and safety journalists", which, as they point out, is very important considering the large number of attacks on journalists that have not been investigated.
"We expect the Government to support this version and thus send a political message that it really guarantees our security and that it will use all its powers to find the attackers of journalists, as well as to bear responsibility for all those who delay investigations. The Draft Law contains also included a provision that the judiciary, executive and legislative authorities are obliged to provide journalists with information and answers in a timely manner, under equal conditions. In the event that they do not do so, journalists can immediately turn to the court, which will order the urgent delivery of information", state the DPNCG.
In this way, as they add, the proactiveness and transparency of state institutions should be enhanced, and it should be made easier for journalists to get answers and information of public importance, which they are often deprived of.
This, as pointed out by the DPNCG, is also very important because of the provision in the law on journalistic due diligence, which implies that journalists must invest much more energy to verify data and publish information that they have thoroughly and in good faith investigated.
"The Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms will be automatically applicable, because at the insistence of the DPNCG and the representative of the NGO, the original version of the article that required respect for the authority and reputation of the judiciary was omitted. All this is due to the Government's intention to introduce a similar provision in the Criticism Code, in order to prevent criticism of the work of judges and prosecutors. Due to the different positions of the media community on certain issues, during the public hearing it should be decided whether the term journalist should be defined by law. The opinion of the DPNCG and UNCG is that a professional journalist should be defined by law, not disputing civil journalism and bloggers as part of our profession. The draft law includes provisions that in the case of national security, territorial integrity and health protection, journalistic sources can be questioned in court, which has not been the case so far. This is due to the standards of the Council of Europe in situations like protection of the state's security and people's health," emphasized the DPNCG.
From this association, they draw the attention of their colleagues to the fact that there is a provision left in the draft law that self-regulation can be financed from the media aid fund introduced by law. As they point out, DNPCG and UNCG were against this because in this way self-regulation turns into regulation.
"We asked for that provision to be deleted or, under equal conditions and due to the same importance, to provide assistance to associations and the Media Institute, but the Government was of the opinion that it "must help self-regulation". Also, the part of the draft law that concerns fund for encouraging pluralism and diversity of the media, i.e. the way in which the state will help the media of public interest in a situation where online journalism takes priority over the traditional press. Since the Government and representatives of the print media did not agree on the details of that future arrangement, at the last session of the Working group, it was agreed that it would be a separate part of the public discussion. That is, that a round table would be organized only around this topic. The draft law was forwarded to the Government after the May holidays and will be sent first for expertise, and then for public discussion. The adoption of the law is planned for the end this year", they point out from the DPNCG.
General Secretary of the DPNCG Mila Radulović represented the DPNCG Working Group and the Association of Journalists of Montenegro
Bonus video:
