Montenegrin media suffer from post-covid syndrome

Coronavirus: an unknown disease, every piece of information is important, but not every piece is accurate, citizens expect new reports, and among journalists there is panic - the fear of not bringing the disease to their loved ones from the field, and the economic instability of all sectors can also threaten their jobs.

Director of the Media Association of Southeast Europe (MAJE) Vuk Marash told "Vijesti" that the pandemic showed that during crisis situations the consumption of media content was the highest, especially the media that were available - television, portals, radio stations.

"When it comes to print media, unfortunately, even though they are one of the most influential forms of information in Montenegro, we had the problem of restricting freedom of movement, and thus the possibility of obtaining a copy of the newspaper. On the other hand, the financial position of the citizens was such that they could barely afford even the basic necessities of life. This led to the further collapse of the media market, because we had an increased need of citizens for information, and on the other hand, the inability of the media to generate basic income in order to continue to perform their function", said Maraš.

According to him, it was the covid crisis that contributed to the fact that, in some countries, even in the surrounding area, for example in Kosovo, print media stopped publishing. "There have been huge shocks in many countries of the world - dismissals of journalists, difficult conditions for media work. Even now, when the pandemic is almost behind us, due to the many negative consequences for the media, the state must find additional sensibility to help the media and ensure that they can work in an adequate way", said Maraš.

He points out that the coronavirus pandemic had a huge impact on the media scene globally, and thus also in Montenegro.

"This is especially so because the media scene in Montenegro is a very small marketing market and the media barely survive even under normal conditions. The pandemic had a negative impact on the economic situation in the country, and thus on the living and working conditions of citizens, and there was also the shutdown of entire industries, which led to a drastic reduction in the income of all media, so in the age of covid-19 were barely surviving," says Maraš.

According to him, it was precisely for this reason that the help of the state was necessary, which at one point recognized this and provided modest means of support for print media and portals.

"That is, through certain activities of the regulator, the electronic media were also helped and the negative impact on the media was reduced to some extent, although they were still in the survival phase, and at the same time they were the most important instrument in the fight against the coronavirus. The media is the only communication channel that essentially educated citizens on how to behave and provided all the essential information during the pandemic," explains Maraš.

Unfortunately, he emphasizes, the state has not sufficiently recognized the need to support the media sector, although it has provided some types of assistance.

"...At that moment, the most important thing for citizens was to provide them with objective, accurate and timely information, so the state had to invest much more in the media sector and mechanisms to recover after the coronavirus pandemic, so that the media could perform their role and in the post-covid period. In the meantime, the Fund for Encouraging Media Pluralism, which was supposed to provide the media with an additional type of assistance, also began its work. However, even the funds allocated from that Fund are not enough to help the media in an adequate way", Maraš concluded.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recommended this year to the authorities of the member states to "ensure the financial sustainability of quality journalism", because it is "the basis for developing an adequate framework for freedom of expression, which states must guarantee both through laws and in practice".

"This is especially because the business models and circumstances for traditional journalism have radically changed due to the new economic reality and digital evolution," says the SE Committee of Ministers.

According to their recommendations, states should encourage proactive measures, legislative and regulatory, as well as take steps to ensure the financial sustainability of the media.

"Any proactive or corrective measure of the state should refer to the quality of journalism of various media actors, including commercial media, public services, independent journalists, regardless of whether it is traditional or digital media, i.e. traditional-digital...", it says. in the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the SE.