The decision to cancel its own decision The Council of AEM to include the music festival "Our Sea, Our Scales" on the list of events of special importance for the public of Montenegro showed that that body did not adequately analyze the justification of placing the music festival on the list of events of special importance.
This was announced by the director of the Media Center, Goran Đurović, stressing that this opens up several questions that point to the "pernicious influence of the party on the work of the most important institutions in the field of media", but also to the "hidden influence on key management bodies", which enable the control of the regulator by individuals.
Đurović states that the initiative to put that music festival on the list of events of special importance for the public was submitted by the general director of the RTCG, Boris Raonić.
"The question arises why the majority of the members of the AEM Council accepted the initiative of RTCG General Director Boris Raonic to put this music festival on the list of events of special interest under the urgent procedure, without consulting anyone. It would have been appropriate if the Electronic Media Agency had been addressed the organizer of the festival Adria Jadran media group (Adria TV-Podgorica)", said Đurović.
According to him, Adria Jadran media group, which is headquartered in Serbia, and RTCG signed a strategic partnership agreement in mid-May of this year for the realization of the "Our Sea, Our Scales" music festival.
He adds that the festival received a "bad evaluation" from a part of the professional and lay public and that it was "declared kitsch" that has no place on the national public media service.
That the quality of the festival is problematic, Đurović points out, is also confirmed by the fact that the Council of AEM canceled its decision by which the festival was placed on the list of events of special importance for the public of Montenegro.
"The fact that Radio Television of Serbia, for example, did not need to sign an agreement with the same media company and broadcast the festival directly speaks about the quality of the festival. RTCG directly broadcasted several festival evenings, and according to the daily newspaper "Pobjeda", RTCG is from renting equipment for the recording of this festival brought in 40.000 euros. Isn't it true that broadcasting eight hours of bad program content (kitsch) on TVCG costs 40.000 euros?" asked Đurović.
He also points out that income from renting equipment cannot be the key reason for Raonic to enter into a strategic partnership with any media company without any consultation with music editors from RTCG.
"Also, the general director of RTCG violated the program and production plan of TVCG for 2022, which does not provide for the transmission of the festival "Our sea, our scales" where, by the way, there was no significant number of performers/authors from Montenegro. If this becomes the working principle of RTCG Raonić's general director, then we can expect similar music and other reality content that the citizens of Montenegro will have to endure only because some production company from the region gave enough money," said the director of the Media Center.
The speed in the decision of this body (without any analysis) and the acceptance of an initiative that proved to be wrong is inexplicable, so it states that another key issue of the influence of the General Director of RTCG on the AEM Council cannot be avoided either.
"It is obvious that the general director of RTCG Raonic has influence on at least three of the total five members of the AEM Council. This is not surprising because he worked with two members of the AEM Council until recently in the same non-governmental organization Građanska Alijansa," said Đurović.
"The question is who is exerting influence on the RTCG and whether this arrangement around the festival was entered into at the behest of someone? The election of members of the RTCG Council is marked by party influence in the Parliament of Montenegro because the Administrative Board applied the law passed in July 2020 by the DPS and by a simple majority of deputies elected so-called representatives of NGOs to the key management body. Later, such a Council elected, contrary to the law and with the conflict of interest of several members of the Council, the general director of RTCG Boris Raonic. The illegally elected general director (who does not have the required years of work experience in the profession and who was a public official at the time of the election) then illegally elected the director of the TVCG, and with new appointments "in depth" he returned the debts to those parties that, through the Party Council, enabled him to illegally become the head of the RTCG," his statement added.
According to Đurović, the amendment of media laws is the first step that can reduce the space for repeating mistakes and that can ensure that "susceptibility to the influence of AEM Council members, as well as the arbitrariness of the general director of RTCG" is avoided.
"Upcoming amendments to media regulations must ensure the selection of professional persons with integrity for key management functions in the most important media institutions. Media regulations must be adopted by members of the Parliament, and current practice does not inspire hope that the adoption of regulations will be guided by the common public interest of professionalizing institutions, but exclusively party interests that enable direct influence on the work of institutions. It remains to be seen whether there is a majority of deputies in the Assembly who will treat the issue of freeing the AEM and RTCG councils from inappropriate party influence in the same way as the issue of freeing the Prosecutor's Council and the prosecutor's office." his statement concluded.
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