Media center: If they were lucky, TVCG would rely on the professional legacy of Mićunović and Kadija

The media center announced that The management and editorial staff of TVCG owe the public an explanation as to why the editor of the Foreign Policy Editorial Board, Vladan Mićunović, was dismissed.

The President of the Media Center Assembly, Dragoljub Vuković, stated in a statement that the Public Service is obliged to do so due to the fact that Mićunović addressed the public on this occasion and presented a series of accusations against those behind the dismissal.

"The reaction of general manager Boris Raonic on his private Facebook page to Mićunović's public advertising is a frivolous and unworthy way of communicating with the public. This is not about the dismissal of the head of a suburban grocery store so that Raonic would only share his views with his friends on the social network. Management and editorial TVCG is indebted to the public in connection with this dismissal, especially since Vladan Mićunović is not someone who belongs to the unrecognizable journalistic average, but is also recognizable in the Montenegrin media community and beyond. The same Vladan Mićunović was illegally dismissed from his post a few years ago director of TVCG by the then management, which was preceded by a direct political action of the then Montenegrin government led by the Democratic Party of Socialists, in which the Council of RTCG was purged of ineligibles and filled with those that "the field recognizes", Vuković stated.

He also points out that "fortunately, the current management-editorial team of the national public media should rely on the professional legacy left by Vladan Mićunović and general director Andrijana Kadija, also illegally dismissed by the DPS authorities, in their intentions to reform RTCG to tabloid media practices and political-calculating visions".

"This legacy reminds us that in 2018, TVCG was recognized by the public as the most trusted media. Since its establishment, the Media Center has been fundamentally committed to strengthening the independence of the national public broadcaster, and its professionalism and ethical recognition, which would be a benchmark and a model for other media. The problematic way in which the current managerial-editorial team was chosen, which was greeted with pain from civil society organizations, journalistic and media organizations and congratulations from political parties, was a sign to us that nothing would come of the desired independence and professionalization. Instead, on we have the practice of privatizing personnel policy, disrespecting internal documents that prescribe program principles and professional standards, even key media laws. The last example of such practice is the attitude towards one of the most prominent members of the journalistic community in Montenegro, who has no blemishes in his professional career, and shows that the fears and criticisms of the Media Center were well-founded," concluded Vuković.