Boris Raonic he has no legitimacy to be a director Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), and the Public Service Council, with his re-appointment, despite the judgment of the High Court, entered the zone of criminal responsibility.
This is what the vice-president of that body told "Vijesti" yesterday after the Council session Marijana Camović Veličković. She pointed out that the Council cannot in any way legalize his election and that they should be held accountable for the non-implementation of the final verdict.
With the votes of four out of five members of the RTCG Council, Raonić was reappointed as general director. Camović Veličković left the session before that, claiming that she did not want to participate in the illegal re-election of Raonic, while she is a member of the Council Milica Špajak at the beginning of the session, she pointed out that she would not vote if the Council accepted the proposal to decide on the candidates based on the 2021 competition.
Four candidates registered for re-election - Boris Raonic, Nikola Marković, Milutin Stijepović i Srđan Čović the President of the Council voted Veselin Drljević and four members. That are Amina Murić, Predrag Miranović, Naod Zoric i Filip Lazović.
Four voted for Raonic, while one ballot remained unfilled.
Yesterday, Drljević did not want to answer the journalist's questions, among others, and whether he is ready to bear criminal and any other responsibility, if the court also finds yesterday's decision to be illegal. He clarified that Raonic was elected for the remaining term of office, which began in August 2021.
A part of the professional public warned yesterday and the day before that such an epilogue could be illegal, but also that Council members could be "responsible for criminal association", despite the fact that voting on candidates is secret.
It "avoided" Bojan Baca who, just before the beginning of the session, resigned from membership in the RTCG Council, in which he stated that "the legal consequence of the verdict is not decided, but ambiguous, a 'useful ambiguity', open to an 'either-or' interpretation, and that according to the principle 'it can be, but it doesn't have to mean'”.
During the session, Drljević also admitted that the Council "fell on the law", which the court determined with final force and effect, but that Raonic "showed results that must be recognized by everyone". Despite the recognition, he saw nothing objectionable in the fact that they included Raonic among the candidates on whose election they decided to be the director.
Attorney Dalibor Tomović, journalist's proxy Nikola Marković who initiated and won a dispute against RTCG as one of the candidates from 2021, said that the re-election of Raonic as general director is a defeat of rights over politics.
In a statement to "Vijesta", Tomović said that the RTCG Council at the session ignored the legally binding decision of the court and "cheated and violated the Law on the National Public Broadcaster" for the second time.
"Although it was up to the Council to decide on the choice of director from among the remaining candidates, i.e. without Mr. Raonic as a candidate or to call for a new competition, the Council again voted for Mr. Raonic, who the court found to be in a conflict of interest," the lawyer pointed out. .
He said that the conflict of interest with Raonic has not been removed even today, because the conditions for the director are evaluated according to the state when the competition was announced, which is the year 2021, "which is what the legally binding judgment that established this deficiency refers to".
"That's why we will seek judicial protection again because we must not allow illegal behavior to become a practice and we will not give up, because this is a matter of principle, not function," concluded Tomović.
According to the judgment of the High Court, the legal consequence of the annulment of the decision on the appointment of Raonic is a re-election among the registered candidates, because according to the court's finding, Raonic could not even be a candidate, or the annulment of the competition for general director. In this procedure, the RTCG has the opportunity to reconsider the remaining applications and decide in accordance with the law.
Yesterday, the council did not accept the option to re-announce a new competition, until then appoint an acting director, because there were three members for it, as many against, and one retained.
Five members of the Council voted for the proposal to re-elect among the registered candidates, without specifying whether Raonic was among them, while Camović Veličković was against and Špajak abstained.
According to the interpretation of the RTCG legal service represented by the RTCG lawyer Želimir Mićović, which some members also relied on during the voting, Raonic cannot be eliminated during the voting among the candidates registered in 2021.
The same position was represented by the lawyer Zorica Đukanović, who represented RTCG in the proceedings.
She told the members of the Council that they have to take into account the current circumstances and that the verdict cannot be interpreted "by taking positions out of context, as is done in the media".
RTCG is financed from the state budget, and the annual inflow of money from the citizens of Montenegro to the account of that media house is about 20 million euros.
The media center files criminal charges
The director of the Media Center, Goran Đurović, announced that the organization will file criminal charges for non-execution of the court verdict "against all Council members who participated in today's vote - Drljević, Lazović, Zorić, Špajak and Murić".
"Also, due to incitement to the commission of a criminal offense, we will file criminal charges against Raonić, an employee in the legal department of RTCG Željko Mićović, as well as RTCG lawyer Zorica Đukanović," announced Đurović.
He emphasized that yesterday RTCG "returned to the scene again as some of the affairs from the best days of DPS".
"Ignoring the final judgment of the High Court shows the impotence of the institutions. A person who deliberately violates the law in order to achieve his personal ambitions obviously has his own problems, but free and professional institutions should stop such cases," Đurović said.
The only solution to the collapse of the system, claims Đurović, is to pass a new Law on RTCG, which has already been prepared, in October at the regular session of the Assembly.
"And that, based on the law, re-appointment of Council members and management who will not be influenced by political parties and who will have at least a little integrity. It remains to be seen whether a new parliamentary majority will be dedicated to the true release of RTCG or whether they will trade with the general director of RTCG again," Đurović concluded.
CGO: The Prosecutor's Office should get involved
Yesterday, the Center for Civic Education called on the prosecutor's office to "proactively take an interest in this case".
"Veselin Drljević, Naod Zorić, Predrag Miranović, Filip Lazović and Amina Murić (co)participated in the new illegal election of Boris Raonic as general director of RTCG, contrary to the final court verdict, and thus continued to harm the public service and the European path of Montenegro. In the joint and planned action by which they entered the zone of criminal responsibility, and unlike last time they had a court decision that makes them conscious perpetrators, the members of the Council were supported by the RTCG legal service", they said from that organization.
They reminded that "according to the explanation of the court decisions, it unequivocally follows that Raonic could not, and cannot, be elected as a director according to the public competition that was updated again today", and that the members of the Council were warned about this in a timely manner by experts and the interested public.
The CGE welcomed the position of Marijana Camović Veličković, a member of the RTCG Council, who was the only one who was consistent in the discussion and in valid legal interpretation and for these clear reasons "she did not participate in the dangerous subordination of the law to the interests of the individual and in making a scandalous decision."
"We remind you that the members of the Council are public officials who receive monthly, although they rarely meet, from 670 (members) to 1,335 euros (Drljević, president). There is also the question of what the former 'activist' Raonic would say to the 'director' Raonic after this decision of the RTCG Council, by which an interest-clientelistic group, on the citizens' budget, mocked the judicial system in Montenegro by demonstrating that the law does not apply to them", they conclude. from CGE.
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