The media center believes that the adopted Law on RTCG is a big step backwards in realizing the idea of independence and professionalization of the public media service.
They reminded that the process of drafting the new Law on RTCG began in 2018 with the announcement of the Vice President of the Government of Montenegro, Zoran Pažin, that the key goal of the new regulation is to increase the independence of the RTCG Council.
"Contrary to the proclaimed goal, the new law has drastically worsened the independence of the RTCG Council, which is the key governing body of the public service. The Council elects and dismisses the general director, who later elects the directors of the organizational units, and all together take care of the responsible operation of the public service. Without the independence of the Council, there is no independence. RTCG. The independence of the RTCG Council increases when the possibility of influence of political parties on the election of members of this body is reduced," states the press release of the Media Center signed by Goran Đurović.
He adds that until now the members of the Council were proposed and elected by authorized proposers (NGO, CANU, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) and the role of deputies in the parliamentary administrative committee was to check the fulfillment of criteria, without the possibility of deciding on candidates.
"Unfortunately, in the previous procedures for appointing members of the Council, the deputies did not respect the law, which resulted in the election of illegitimate representatives of NGOs in this body. With the new law, the role of the administrative committee has been changed, and now the deputies vote on candidates based on the biography, interviews and the number of supports of authorized proponents. is a worse solution than the current one, because deputies will always vote for suitable representatives of NGOs. Also, the previous law provided that a member of the Council can be dismissed only in accordance with the Law on RTCG and exclusively for reasons established by that law and not by another regulation. In the new law, there is no this protection of members of the RTCG Council, so the parliamentary majority will be able to use other regulations against ineligible members of the Council without hindrance. regulations, the power to dismiss a disobedient member of the RTCG Council, which until now was not feasible based on the law, but was based on the arbitrariness of the parliamentary majority. The final blow to the independence of the Council was provided by the fact that the new Law on RTCG does not provide for judicial protection in the event of the appointment and dismissal of Council members," the Media Center press release states.
It is added that this means that the members of the Assembly can, by the will of the majority, dismiss a member of the Council who cannot challenge the Assembly's decision in court.
"In all stages of the drafting of the new Law on RTCG, the media center gave concrete suggestions that could ensure greater independence of the Council. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Culture did not care not only about the suggestions of NGOs, but also about the recommendations from the analysis of the Council of Europe and the European Commission (Jufrex). The Government of Montenegro and the parliamentary majority clearly underestimate the European Commission if they think that such a regulation will gain positive points. The number of accepted NGO suggestions in the process of drafting the Law on RTCG cannot cover the essential shortcomings of this regulation in yet another simulation of democracy," the announcement concludes.
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