The Institute for the Media of Montenegro welcomed the adoption of media laws, which, they point out, are of indisputable importance for Montenegro and its European interest, but they believe that they were passed in "extortion of time and domesticated practice of party guessing", which is not in favor of good governance. media sector and media freedom.
"Party bargains were evident in the amendments to the Draft Law on the National Public Media Service of Montenegro, by which the Government changed the proposal of the working group for the drafting of the law by lowering the qualifications for the appointment of the general director and members of the Council from ten to five years of work experience. With this, the political parties gave up principles of meritocracy and demonstrated their desire to maintain control over the Public Service," the announcement states.
They said that it is good that the Government gave up the intention that the Parliamentary Administrative Committee elects the members of the Council of Radio and Television of Montenegro from non-governmental organizations. "By retaining such a solution, the executive power would retain an evident political influence on the work of the Public Service. The decision that the Assembly appoints, rather than elects, members of the Council, which was insisted on by the civil sector in the working group, is an improvement compared to the law from 2020 and it gives the possibility to the Public Service to be editorially autonomous," it added.
The Institute for Media also points out that the Public Service, with the solutions that, in addition to the fixed annual allocations from the budget in the amount of about 20 million euros, enable the Public Service to earn income from marketing in prime time, which was opposed by the working group for the drafting of media laws , placed in a good position compared to the competition, "but the price of that is the political trade around reducing the criteria for the selection of management structures and the political control of the media company, which is of great importance for the democratization of society".
Legal solutions provide for improvements and more transparent advertising of public companies in online media, strengthening of financial and editorial independence of local, public broadcasters through fixed allocation from the budget, strengthening of the role of regulators in protecting the application of professional standards.
"The work on new laws, however, did not create the conditions for solving the issue of 'buying public opinion' through external influence, sustainability of the media market, transparency of ownership, which are some of the key problems of the media scene in Montenegro. On the contrary, negotiations on production quotas for television and radio stations, on increasing the state's financial support through the Fund for Media Pluralism and for the Public Service to keep commercials in prime time, the current situation is maintained," the announcement states.
The institute says that a prerequisite for the protection of media freedom is the application of adopted acts, "for which political will is required".
"This will is also needed to bring the media in line with European values. Montenegro still has to work on harmonizing with the EU regulations in the field of media and digital services, which provide the necessary mechanisms to restore trust in the media and the institutions of society," it concludes.
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