The Council of Radio Television of Montenegro (RTCG) will only know in four days who are the candidates for general director of the public service according to the competition that ended on August 15, because that body changed the procedures and authorized a special commission to open bids and prepare a report on submitted applications.
At the electronic session of the Council, about which the public was not informed, the Decision was made on the formation of the Commission for the opening and review of applications received under the Public Competition for the election of the General Director. The president of that commission is a graduated lawyer from RTCG Balša Milić, and members of the law school Irena Vešović i Rada Ćupić.
"The commission's task is to open and review the received applications, to prepare a report in the form of a record of the received applications, which will be submitted to the RTCG Council, to compile a ranking list of candidates who meet the formal and legal requirements for the public competition for the election of the general director of the RTCG and to submit it to the Council RTCG", it says in the Decision. The commission should complete these tasks by August 26 at 15 p.m., and submit all necessary documentation to the Council by August 27, no later than 15 p.m.
At the same session, held the day before yesterday, a decision was made according to which the same three-member Commission should open and review the applications for the RTCG ombudsman and prepare documentation about it to submit to the Council.
Deputy President of the Council Marijana Camović Veličković she protested the change in procedures, judging that the president Veselin Drljević continuously degrades the role of that body and its members who were elected to these positions in order to represent the public interest on behalf of the citizens of Montenegro.
"The latest electronic session that you suddenly opened informs us that we will only find out who the candidates for general director are on August 27, that is, 13 days after the end of the competition. How did you get to that date? The result of consultations with (all) members of the Council is certainly not. How did you come up with the proposal for the members of the Commission that will deal with the applications? Last time, in addition to the lawyers from RTCG, all of us from the Council were members. Why are we being skipped now? Who decided that? What kind of Commission is this?", stated Camović Veličković in a letter to Drljević.
She reminded Drljević that the same Council in 2021 chose the general director 15 days after the end of the competition, while the names of the candidates were known on the same day.
"Earlier there was an interest to Božidar Šundić finish the mandate as soon as possible. What is the motive for procrastination? I believe you are aware that everyone is clear, but I ask anyway. The deadlines are the same as in 2021 as they are today, so you cannot invent them for your own benefit," pointed out Camović Veličković in the letter.
According to unofficial information in the race for the general director, except for the current incumbent Boris Raonic, who neither confirmed nor denied his candidacy, will also be found Srdjan Covic, Časlav Vujotić, Vladimir Marash, Sabrija Vulić, Slaven Knezović, as well as the former director of RTCG Andrijan Kadi and former director of KIC "Budo Tomović" Snezana Burzan.
A new competition for the general director of RTCG was announced after Raonic resigned from that position on July 10, and was then appointed acting director at the same session of the Council.
After the controversial amendments to the Law on the National Public Broadcaster were adopted by some of the public, which, as documented, were also written in Raonic's cabinet, he now meets the conditions to be legally elected as a director for a full term. Namely, by law, the director of RTCG must now have five, instead of ten, years of work experience in management positions in areas relevant to the performance of the Public Media Service (journalism, art, culture, audiovisual media activity, sociology, history, law, economics...). Five first-instance and final court verdicts have so far confirmed that Raonic was illegally elected as the general director of RTCG on two occasions - in August 2021 and then in July 2023.
The courts appreciated that Raonic was a member of the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media (SAEM) at the time of his application to the public competition and his appointment as general director, i.e. he was a public official appointed by the Parliament, which is contrary to the provision of the Law on the National Public Broadcaster RTCG.
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