The Radio Television of Montenegro (RTCG) has announced a competition for the ombudsman of that media house for the fourth time since May of this year.
The competition was announced on September 11 and will last for 15 days, and the RTCG Council will make a decision on the selection of candidates within 30 days. The conditions for the ombudsman, as stated in the competition, are citizenship of Montenegro, residence in Montenegro, at least VII1 level of educational qualification. Now, unlike previous competitions, five instead of ten years of work experience in journalism and media science is enough.
The ombudsman of the RTCG is elected for a three-year term, while the August competition provided for a five-year mandate.
The third RTCG ombudsman competition was canceled at the beginning of this month because, according to the RTCG Council's explanation provided to the media, none of the candidates received the necessary majority.
"Since none of the candidates received the required majority of votes of the members of the Appointment Council, the public competition will be repeated, in accordance with Article 35 of the RTCG Statute", the RTCG Council states.
After the cancellation of the third competition for the election of RTCG ombudsman, three candidates for that position - the former ombudsman Danijela Popović and journalists Žarko Božović i Vesna Pejović.
They addressed a letter to the Office of the European Commission in Montenegro, the rapporteur for Montenegro Tonino Piculi, the Program Office of the Council of Europe in Podgorica, the OSCE Mission in Montenegro, the Director of the Media Program of the OSCE Mission in Montenegro, Evan Eberleu i EBU - Radki Betchevo, and informed them about the current situation in the Public Service, assessing that the RTCG has not had an ombudsman for more than three months and that was by the will of the Council.
In that letter, they stated that "the shameful Council does not have the courage to announce that Pejović is not to their liking, so the alleged vote, if there was any at all, was carried out without the presence of journalists who were informed that the Council session remains open."
"We also know the reason why they don't want Pejović because her engagement would quickly dispel the false idyllic image of the supposedly most watched medium with balanced reporting, which is constantly being marketed from that house. The enigma remained, did any of the members of the Council have an iota of sense not to join the majority?", announced the candidates.
Popović and Božović previously withdrew their candidacies for ombudsman of the Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) in favor of their colleague Vesna Pejović and informed the Public Service Council about this.
In a letter to the Council, former ombudsman RTCG Popović and Božović state that Vesna Pejović is a long-time journalist-editor in that media house, the author of numerous shows, series and one of the authors and signatories of the Code of Journalists of Montenegro.
In the second consecutive competition for Ombudsman, the RTCG Council chose Todor Brajković, who soon resigned. He did so after some of the candidates announced the filing of criminal charges against the President of the Council Veselin Drljević and four members of the Council who voted for Brajković, who does not meet the requirements for that position.
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