Media center: Citizens must receive information that is useful to them in their daily lives, and the media should make this possible

The media center and representatives of NGOs proposed that the Draft Law on Media be supplemented with a norm prohibiting the operation of media that are not registered with the competent authority.

According to the media center, from November 17 to 23, five round tables were organized with representatives of NGOs and the media, which were dedicated to the consideration of the draft media laws, which are on public debate from November 8 to December 18 this year.

As stated in the press release of the Media Center, the meetings were held in Bijelo Polje, Berane, Bar, Tivat and Podgorica, with the support of the Balkan Network for the Development of Civil Society (BCSDN).

As reported, the Ministry of Culture and Media announced on November 8 a call for a public debate regarding the drafts of three media laws: the Media Law, the Law on Audiovisual Media Services and the Law on Public Media Service.

They said that at the round tables newspapers were presented, which bring drafts of media laws and improvements compared to existing regulations.

It was ordered that the segments of the regulations which, in the opinion of the Media Center, are problematic and which should be improved before submitting the media laws to the Parliament for adoption, were also presented at the gatherings.

In particular, as they state, certain solutions related to the possibility of media that are not registered in the records of the competent ministry are problematic.

"It is proposed that the draft law on media be supplemented with a norm that prohibits the work of media that are not registered with the competent authority. This prevents, first of all, unregistered portals, and possibly other media, from appearing on the market and collecting money from marketing while at the same time they don't pay taxes, thus becoming unfair competition to other media that pay their obligations regularly. Also, media that are not registered are not under the supervision of institutions that monitor the implementation of the law and are authorized to sanction non-compliance with professional standards, especially hate speech," he states. in the announcement.

They add that at the meetings the problem was pointed out that at the moment internet publications (portals) and printed media are out of control (in positive regulations) of the application of professional standards, hidden advertising, etc., so it was suggested that the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM) grow into an Agency for the media and expand the range of activities.

According to the proposals, it was requested that, at any cost, online publications join audiovisual media services in order to ensure an adequate role of the future Agency for Audiovisual Services and improve the application of professional standards on portals.

Also, at the meetings, as it was announced, it was proposed to keep the existing solution from the law and that comments on portals with offensive content be deleted within 60 minutes from the moment when the offensive content was pointed out and not within eight hours. as provided for in the Draft Law on Media.

"The media center proposed to expand the competence of the future Agency for AVM services in the analysis of the market and the allocation of national frequencies for TV broadcasters. According to the provisions of the current Law, as well as the Draft Law, the Agency does not have the competence to conduct periodic market analyzes and that, in relation to the indicators from the analysis, allocates frequencies for national TV broadcasters," the NGO said.

It was said that in practice this leads to an easier procedure for obtaining a national frequency and entering the Montenegrin market for media from the environment (primarily the Republic of Serbia) that have headquarters in another country that produce program content that is rebroadcast in Montenegro.

This leads, further, as they state, to jeopardizing the work of broadcasters established and established in Montenegro because they cannot compete on the modest marketing market with televisions from the environment that produce very little program content in Montenegro, and therefore do not have significant costs, while on the other hand, they take a significant part of the money from marketing.

They add that proposals were presented at the gatherings to oblige broadcasters by law to devote at least 10 percent of the total weekly program to the publication of news and information from the coverage area, which should be further regulated by a by-law.

Also, as they state, it is necessary for broadcasters to be obliged by law that the minimum participation of their own production in the total weekly broadcast of a television or radio program will amount to at least 20 percent, which is foreseen in the draft Media Strategy but not in the Draft Law on AVM Services.

"Citizens must receive information that is useful to them in their daily lives, and the media should enable this by producing content in the territory they cover and in relation to the needs of citizens from that territory. If the law does not prescribe a minimum percentage of its own content production, it is highly likely that the media will produce almost none of the content needed by citizens," they said in the statement.

The participants of the meetings, as they add, also agreed with the proposal to amend the Draft Law on AVM Services in such a way as to retain the solution from the existing Law and prescribe that the broadcaster is obliged to contribute to: free, truthful, complete, unbiased and timely information to the public about events in the country and abroad; respecting and promoting basic human rights and freedoms, democratic values, institutions and pluralism of ideas; improving the culture of public dialogue and respecting language standards.

They point out that if the law does not create an obligation to respect professional standards, then electronic media will be able to violate professional standards, spread hate speech and be mere propaganda of political parties without any sanction from the Agency for AVM Services, while compliance with standards and prevention of hate speech will can only be realized after many years of court proceedings.

They state that the Agency for AVM Services should perform the role of a regulator and undertake financial sanctions against media that violate professional standards, temporarily or permanently revoke work permits, which is provided by the Law as an option.

At the meetings, it was proposed that the number of members of the RTCG Council be increased by two members (compared to the Draft), from 11 to 13, one of which would be proposed by the national councils of minority peoples and the other by NGOs from the field dealing with issues of gender equality.

"At the same time, through amendments to the Draft Law, the compensation of the Council members should be reduced by 50 percent compared to the current legal solution (and be 50 percent of the average monthly salary in the RTCG), so that the amount of funds planned for the compensation of the members of the RTCG Council is not increased," he adds. in the announcement.

At the meetings, they said, a proposal was accepted to amend the draft Law on AVM Services and the draft Law on RTCG in the transitional provisions and to prescribe the initiation of the procedure for electing new members of the Council within eight days after the adoption of those two laws.

There is no valid argument that can be a justification to retain, as they point out, the solution found in the draft laws, which stipulate that the current Council of the Agency and RTCG's mandate lasts until the end, that is, the next three to four years, as well as that the current managements remain in office until the end of the mandate.

"Given that a new law on AVM services and a new law on RTCG are being adopted, which introduce new authorized representatives (Bar Association, representatives of NGOs in the field of gender equality, etc.) into the council, who should contribute to the improvement of the work of this key management body authorities, to introduce new criteria regarding the qualifications/experience of Council members, as well as to introduce new criteria for NGOs as authorized proposers, it is fully expected that immediately after the adoption of these two laws, the procedure for selecting new governing bodies will begin. This also applies to the selection of new directors of the Agency and RTCG, because the selection criteria for these functions have also been tightened," they said.

They point out that if the Government wants to professionalize the Agency for AVM services and RTCG, then the implementation of the law and the appointment of new management structures should not be delayed.

"Until now, proposals for improving the draft media laws prepared by the Media Center have been supported by 30 NGOs, and we expect that number to increase by the end of the public hearing," the announcement concludes.