The Media Center welcomes the decision of the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, to return for reconsideration the Law on the National Public Broadcaster-Public Media Service of Montenegro, the non-governmental organization (NGO) announced today.
Milatović announced earlier today that he issued decrees on the promulgation of ten laws that were adopted by the Parliament of Montenegro in the previous days.
Earlier this week, the Assembly sent all 12 adopted laws to Milatović, and he returned two documents for reconsideration - the Law on the National Public Broadcaster - Public Media Service of Montenegro and the Law on Amendments to the Law on the Judicial Council and Courts.
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"The government and members of the Parliament now have a new chance to fix legal solutions that significantly affect the professionalization and independence of RTCG, but also the possibility of greater sustainability of commercial media. Adopting media laws for the purposes of obtaining a positive IBAR should not be missed the opportunity to essentially improve the legal framework for better information to the public. The opportunity for self-promotion and collecting political points should not be more important to the government and the parliamentary majority than to the essential professionalization of a key institution in the field of media," states the statement of the Media Center signed by Goran Đurović.
The statement adds that before the adoption of the media laws, a group of 40 NGOs submitted to all parliamentary clubs a request that the criteria for the selection of Council members and the general director of RTCG be tightened again with amendments.
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"The action of the President of Montenegro is in line with the demands of NGOs as well as the working group that worked for 30 months on media laws and established a draft law requiring members of the RTCG Council and the general director to have at least 10 years of work experience in the VII1 level of qualification. The government decided, and the majority in the Assembly accepted, to relax the criteria for the members of the Council and for the general director of RTCG. AVM services and the director of this institution have a minimum of ten years of work experience with the VII1 level of qualification," the announcement reads.
The Media Center said that it was obvious that "the government had a special interest in RTCG, which is no less important an institution than the Agency for Audiovisual Services, so the only explanation is that the majority in the government adjusted the legal criteria to a predetermined person who should cover the position of general director ".
"This is not news because PES (Movement Evropa Sad) and coalition partners did the same thing when making the decision on RTV Podgorica, when at the last minute they eased the criteria for selecting a director in order to bring Vladimir Otašević to that position. We see no need to ease criteria for the general director of RTCG if one wants to achieve quality in the management of an institution that disposes of 20 million euros per year paid by all citizens. it is a way to achieve higher quality in the work of the public media service. If the goal is to apply as many candidates as possible for the position of general director, then it is best to remove all criteria and allow all able-bodied citizens to apply for this workplace," they said from the Media Center.
The NGO said that the Government and MPs also have the opportunity to correct the wrong decision of granting permission to RTCG to broadcast marketing in the period from 20:22 to XNUMX:XNUMX.
"During the drafting of the law, the Working Group was of the opinion that the solution from the previous law should be kept, considering that the revenues from marketing for TVCG in this period are negligible compared to the total revenues from the budget it generates (currently around 20 million euros), while with on the other hand, commercial media, whose total annual budgets are smaller than RTCG's budget, can have a significant source of income. TVCG was given the opportunity to use the marketing space from 25 pm to 20 pm "In Germany, advertising is prohibited after 22 p.m., on weekdays and during holidays. The situation is similar in the Netherlands and France," stated the Media Center.
They also say that when determining public policy, care should be taken to find optimal measures that will lead to an increase in the production of commercial media in order to provide better information to the public, but on the other hand, that will enable fair conditions on the market.
The media center also said that the European Commission gave a positive opinion on the legal solutions insisted on by the President of Montenegro, proposed by a group of NGOs, and supported in the form of amendments by the members of the opposition and Democratic Montenegro during the vote on media laws.
"How necessary the urgent professionalization of RTCG is shown by today's coverage of RTCG, whose journalist (whose initials are MV) tells falsehoods and deliberately hides the information that the European Commission gave a positive opinion on the draft law proposed by the Ministry of Culture and Media at one time, which implied as a criterion for the selection of the general director, 10 years of work experience with the VII1 degree and a ban on broadcasting marketing on TVCG in the period from 20 pm to 22 pm. So, it is true that President Milatović did not propose anything contrary to the opinion of the European Commission by returning the Law on RTCG The amendments of the members of the Parliament were not against the views of the European Commission. Apparently, the president Jakov Milatović became a target of the editorial team of RTCG, which is very satisfied with the relaxed criteria for the director general. The editorial team, which apparently has a new boss, did not even organize the adoption of media laws a debate show to make it clearer to the public what is gained or lost by different legal solutions," said the Media Center.
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