The Media Center called on the Ministry of Culture and Media to speed up the process of amending media laws that have been in preparation for more than eight months.
The director of the Media Center, Goran Đurović, said that this NGO called on the President and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government on September 5 to ensure the fulfillment of obligations in the EU integration process and the acceleration of the process of amending media laws.
"On September 16, the Ministry of Culture responded to our initiative and promised that the public debate will begin immediately after the functionality of the Government's website is re-established. Even after the establishment of all the functions of the Government's web portal, the public debate on the three media laws has not yet started: the Media Law , the Law on Audiovisual Media Services and the Law on Public Media Service RTCG," he announced.
Đurović believes that by postponing the public hearing on the three media laws and referring them to the Parliament for adoption, there will be a violation of the action plan for EU accession.
He also adds that the Ministry of Culture and Media formed a working group for the drafting of media laws during the mandate of the previous government, and that after more than seven months of work, the working group completed its work on September 25.
In order for the three media laws to be sent to the Assembly for decision, Đurović clarifies that it is necessary to conduct a public debate in order to give the professional and lay public the opportunity to offer suggestions and contribute to improving the quality of these regulations.
He also states that the amendments to the Law on Media envisage improving the position of journalists, increasing the Fund for Media Pluralism, in order to improve the information of citizens, and improve the framework for suppressing hate speech.
"The adoption of the law on audiovisual media services envisages the improvement of the independence of the council (the key management body) in the media market regulator, the increase in the scope of situations that represent a conflict of interests of the members of the regulator's council, but also the connection between the members of the regulator's council and the council of public broadcasters, the improvement of financial and editorial independence and work of local public broadcasters, better protection against unprofessional content of broadcasters from neighboring countries, improving the control role of electronic media market regulators, increasing the minimum percentage of own production of electronic media for better information of the public," said Đurović.
The amendments to the Law on RTCG foresee, as he says, an increase in the independence of the council of the public media service and a reduction of inappropriate party influence on the selection of members of this key management body, an increase in the criteria for council members in terms of their professional capacities, the transparency of the work of the RTCG, and improved criteria for the selection of the general director. , improves the responsibility of the general director and directors of organizational units, improves the position of the ombudsman in charge of listeners' and viewers' complaints.
"Amendments to media laws are part of the European integration process of Montenegro. The negotiation chapters that deal with media policy issues are chapters 10 - Information society and media and 23 - Judiciary and fundamental rights. If the government wants to do what is possible to speed up the EU accession process , and even in its technical mandate, then it should speed up the process of passing media laws. The Ministry of Culture and Media and the Government must not avoid their obligations because of a vote of no confidence in them. The existing Government is in full mandate to exercise all its powers established by the Constitution until the elections new. Final decisions are certainly made in the Parliament, so the question of the legitimacy of the law is indisputable. It would be irresponsible for the Government to process some other legal texts before the Parliament (e.g. the law on confiscation of illegally acquired property) without holding a public debate and referring it to the Parliament media laws", says Đurović.
He also assesses that further delaying the process of amending media laws means a kind of disrespect to all those who participated in the working group and contributed to the improvement of the normative basis for suppressing hate speech in the media, for better functioning of media market regulators, better functioning of public media services and improvement of the quality of information to the public.
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