Without free and responsible media, there is no free society and responsible and responsible government, which means that there is no development of society, said Minister of Culture and Media Tamara Vujović.
She said this at the conference entitled "Environment for media work in Montenegro - how to improve it?" in Podgorica.
"We are very determined to improve the media environment. The Montenegrin media scene is characterized by sharp polarization, the media are fighting to stay on the market, and there are many of them, between 180 and 200," Vujović pointed out.
She stated that the problem that burdens her are attacks on journalists.
"Here, the message given by the Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković is really encouraging about how the judicial authorities will act and what the instructions are. I promise that we will have closer cooperation with the commission that deals with attacks on journalists," said Vujović.
The Minister emphasized that the Ministry was working on amendments to the set of laws.
"Three media laws have been sent to the European Commission. Next week, the director of the Media Directorate and I are going to Brussels and we hope for a good response," Vujović said.
Director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Media Center Goran Đurović said that no one should be surprised when phantom portals like "Udara" start to appear.
"Whose founders are unknown, and the prosecution cannot initiate any meaningful work," said Đurović.
He said that if public broadcasters do not do their job professionally and do not criticize the work of those in power, then it is impossible to think about the quality work of other commercial media, to which public broadcasters must be an incentive to work.
Director of the Directorate for Media in the Ministry of Culture and Media Neđeljko Rudović said that the Fund for Media Pluralism will be increased from one million to 2,5 million euros.
"Only those media that have fulfilled the legal regulations and publicly announced their imprint or ownership structure will be able to access the fund," said Rudović.
He added that what is important is the registration of the media.
"After several discussions, we proposed registration records that must be mandatory, which means that we must know who their founders are and who their editor-in-chief is," said Rudović.
He emphasized that if they are not entered into the records, the law did not define the ban on the media, but a monetary sanction was defined.
Vice President of the Council of Radio Television of Montenegro (RTCG) Marijana Camović Veličković said that on a daily basis they have at least one affair concerning RTCG, and the legal solution related to that issue will not solve those problems for now.
Rudović replied that "The government will not rule in this case concerning RTCG, there are already authorities that are responsible for that".
Camović Veličković said that there was an increase in earnings in almost all media "which is not a consequence of the decisions of media owners or directors, but simply through projects such as Europe now and then later through earnings in the public sector, it was harmonized".
"When it comes to the mainstream media, everyone is in a huge financial plus, so all the talk that the media is failing, I don't have a single argument that this is true," she said.
The President of the Commission for Investigating Attacks on Journalists, Mihailo Jovović, said that as far as the safety of journalists is concerned, it is positive that since 2018 we have not had any attacks on journalists with serious consequences.
"But the number of attacks with minor consequences has increased. They are usually attacks on rallies that have been held and threats via the Internet. The reason for this increase in attacks is the increase in tensions in society," said Jovović.
He said that the prosecution and the police act much more seriously and that they quickly solved a large number of cases, and that some of the attacks and threats via the Internet are an exception, as this also requires cooperation with other countries and companies that maintain social networks.
"I would especially like to emphasize the improvement of the Commission's cooperation with the prosecution, we basically ask them to provide us with a list of cases from the moment of learning that an attack on journalists took place. What you recently read in the media that the Supreme Prosecutor gave instructions on how to proceed in the attacks on journalists is the result of our work. These recommendations are literally rewritten in this manual, so you can finally see that our work makes sense," said Jovović.
The Media Center previously announced that the conference was organized in order to contribute to the public debate on the environment for media work and contribute to the improvement of the situation in the field of public information and the development of professional standards with concrete proposals.
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