The Media Center expressed its regret that on the International Day of Media Freedom it was not able to point out anything affirmative regarding the media sphere, and especially media freedom in Montenegro.
As stated in the Media Center's announcement, the usurpation of the national public media service by the authorities has been going on for more than a year, "which is confirmed by the latest court rulings on the illegal dismissals of RTCG General Director Andrijana Kadija, TVCG Director Vladan Mićunović and the editorial team of TVCG".
"The usurpation turned the national public media into an open propaganda mouthpiece of the government and thwarted the attempt to transform RTCG into a media that will serve the citizens and be a standard of professional and ethical journalistic standards," it added.
The media center, as announced, has persistently but in vain called on the members of the RTCG Council, especially those whose legitimacy and legality are not in dispute, to resign and thus ensure the conditions for the return of RTCG to the citizens, as provided for by the Law.
"Although the current Montenegrin Prime Minister, Duško Marković, promised in his program speech to create a media strategy, there is nothing to even hint that this promise was not only for the crazy to rejoice. The analysis of the situation in the media sphere and the creation of a new one based on it was also missing. legal regulations. Admittedly, they were working on new media laws, but the offered solutions, unfortunately, showed that the government does not care about improvement, but about limiting the freedoms that have been enjoyed for years."
The assurances of the authorities that they will take a serious approach to solving cases of attacks on journalists and media property, as assessed by the Media Center, remained declarative.
"Because in none of the more serious cases was an inch moved forward. The international public's intense interest in the last of those cases - the attempted murder of Vijesti journalist Olivera Lakić - did not help to solve it. The judiciary, however, showed enviable efficiency in the case of investigative journalist Jov Martinović, whom she sentenced to prison because, while doing his job, he was in contact with people suspected of criminal activities".
They point out that the role of the mass media in democratic societies is not to be a propaganda service of the government or any center of institutional power, but to control the government and the centers of power, and to provide citizens with true and comprehensive information about everything that directly or indirectly concerns and affects them. on their lives.
"If it wants to be a democratic society, Montenegro must no longer favor the propaganda function of the media, especially not those that are publicly owned," concludes the announcement of the Media Center.
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