The Labor Inspectorate expects to finish the inspection procedure at the end of this week in connection with the third election of Boris Raonic as the General Director of Radio-Television of Montenegro (RTCG).
It is portal Libertas announced by the Directorate for Inspection Affairs.
"The Labor Inspectorate started the inspection procedure on September 20, 2024", it is stated in the answers to Libertas, which were signed by the spokeswoman of the administration, Irena Gigović-Radusinović.
The procedure was initiated two days after the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the Media Union of Montenegro (SMCG), on September 18 of this year, asked the Labor Inspectorate to react as soon as possible in order to determine whether Raonic's third election is also illegal.
They warned that there is a suspicion that Raonic has not fulfilled the requirement of five years of work experience in accordance with the Labor Law and that he has already been appointed as general director twice, which would make his third term in violation of the Public Service Law.
Libertas failed to get an explanation from the Labor Inspectorate as to why it did not launch an inspection before the decision of the RTCG Council, when it could have influenced Raonic not to be elected if he did not meet the conditions.
Raonic was elected on August 31 of this year. The inspectorate ignored the appeal of seven candidates for the position of general director of RTCG, who called on it to check Raonic's candidacy before deciding on the election.
So far, the labor inspection has never used its legal powers to determine the legality of Raonic's candidatures.
In August 2021, when Raonic was illegally elected to that position for the first time, the inspection declared itself - incompetent.
Such a decision of the labor inspector was confirmed by the former Ministry of Economic Affairs, headed by Jakov Milatović. The Administrative Court of Montenegro canceled that decision and ordered the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which is now superior to the Labor Inspectorate, to correct the error within 30 days and issue a new legal decision. The legal term expired almost half a year ago.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which is headed by Naida Nišić (PES), did not answer Libertas when asked why they continue to ignore the order of the Administrative Court.
The prosecution is still scouting Raonic's second choice to head RTCG, on June 1, 2023. The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica confirmed to Libertas that the object is still under investigation.
The prosecution instituted the case on June 3, 2023 due to non-enforcement of the final verdict of the Basic Court in Podgorica, which found that Raonic was elected illegally in August 2021, because he was in a conflict of interest as a member of the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM).
The court also disputed the fact that the RTCG Council did not explain Raonic's choice at the time, and annulled the Council's decision.
The process was conducted according to the lawsuit of Nikola Marković, one of the candidates in the competition announced in June 2021.
The verdict became final on May 10, 2023, by the decision of the High Court, which ordered the RTCG Council to act in accordance with it.
However, on June 1 of the same year, the council re-elected the illegally elected Raonic as general director of RTCG.
The Council's decision to re-elect Raonic was publicly opposed only by the president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Marijana Camović-Veličković.
At the end of June last year, the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica transferred the case to the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), which did not manage to finish it even in a year.
The decision of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, which confirmed the previous decisions of the courts, and which the SDT claimed it was waiting for in order to bring the proceedings to an end, was made in January of this year, but even six months after it, the SDT did not file an indictment.
The chief special prosecutor, Vladimir Novović, announced in the "Načisto" show on TV Vijesti on June 7 this year that the decision regarding the election of the general director of the RTCG, Boris Raonic, will be "made soon".
He also said that almost all investigative actions have been carried out.
Instead of a decision, on June 25, the case was returned to the ODT, with the explanation that this was required by changes to the Law on Special Prosecutor's Office.
Libertas failed to get an answer from the ODT as to why the case for which the special prosecutor claimed that "almost all investigative actions have been carried out" is still in the investigation phase.
"We are working on it as a priority," they announced.
The ODT said that since the RTCG case, they have formed three criminal cases - abuse of official position, non-execution of a court decision and abuse of official position through incitement.
In those cases, the prosecution is checking the actions of Raonic, Council President Veselin Drljević, council members Filip Lazović, Naod Zorić, Amina Murić, Predrag Miranović, Milica Špajak and the head of the Legal Service of Radio-Television of Montenegro, Želimir Mićović.
That the second election of Raonic was also illegal was established by the Basic Court in Podgorica in a first-instance verdict in April this year.
The court found that Raonic could not be elected general director of RTCG a second time, because the Council had to assess whether he met the requirements at the time when the competition was announced, in June 2021. Raonic was then in a conflict of interest as a member of the AEM Council.
"It is irrelevant that Boris Raonic resigned from that position on August 13, 2021," the Basic Court stated.
The decision of the High Court in that procedure is still awaited. That procedure was initiated by one of the candidates for general director of RTCG, Srđan Čović.
That first-instance verdict established that Raonic did not even meet the legal requirement of 10 years of experience in higher vocational education (VII 1). The same was established by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption on February 3 of this year, which assessed that Raonic could only be elected in 2028 in relation to that condition.
It all started in the spring of 2021 with fiery speeches in parliament about "liberating" the RTCG from the political influence of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which lost power in August 2020. There was also talk of "liberating" the RTCG from the alleged intention of control from informal circles, which the former Democratic Front especially insisted on, regarding initiatives that before the election of the new RTCG Council, media laws must be changed, especially the Law on the National Public Broadcaster RTCG. While they were in the opposition, the parties of the new government boycotted the parliamentary session where that law was adopted in June 2020, claiming that it was "harnessed to the propaganda machinery of the DPS". After coming to power, however, they were in no hurry to change it.
Parliament ignored the initiative of 41 NGOs
The parliamentary majority also turned a deaf ear to the initiative that 41 non-governmental organizations, in January 2021, sent to the then presidents of the Assembly, Aleksa Bečić, and the Government, Zdravko Krivokapić, asking for urgent changes to that law.
Those NGOs warned that, if the Assembly elects a new convocation of the Council, that body will not be independent.
"Then the general director and all other managers will be under the mortgage of party affiliation", they assessed at the time.
On June 11, 2021, according to the model established by the DPS, and which they once criticized, the deputies of the ruling majority elected a new RTCG Council.
Bojan Baća, Žarko Mirković, Naod Zorić, Filip Lazović, Veselin Drljević, Milica Špajak, Amina Murić, Marijana Camović-Veličković and Predrag Marsenić were appointed as members of that body.
That composition of the Council illegally elected Raonic in August, with one vote for the opponent Nikola Marković.
Raonic came to that position as a long-time director of the Citizens' Alliance (GA), within which the School of Democratic Leadership functions, through which almost all ruling and opposition parties have passed through decades.
The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption did not find anything objectionable in the fact that three members of the Council - Milica Špajak, Amina Murić and Bojan Baća - were in business relations with GA.
Murić is still employed by the Civic Alliance, Milica Špajak is the program director of the NGO "Youth Initiative for Human Rights", which according to the register of non-governmental organizations is one of the two founders of the GA, while Baća was a member of the GA Council at the time of the first election.
Raonic to the deputy of the former DF: Tnx bro
After the election, there were congratulations from party leaders and officials. Among the first to congratulate him was Dritan Abazović, at that time the Deputy Prime Minister.
"Congratulations, the Bastille has fallen," said Abazović at the time.
The second came from the then DF MP Nikola Bajčetić, who assessed that Raonic's election was "one of the first victories of the parliamentary majority". Raonic replied on the social network: "Tnx bro".
The congratulations were joined by the leader of the Albanian Alternative Nik Đeljošaj, the president of Force Nazif Cungu, the leader of the Liberal Party Andrija Popović, the leader of the Bosniak Party Ervin Ibrahimović...
None of the parties in power, however, commented on the final verdict, which established that Raonic was illegally elected for the first time.
There were no reactions when the RTCG Council elected Raonic for the second time, regardless of the final verdict. They remained silent even when the civil sector and the media asked them for answers about it.
When the media laws, including the one on RTCG, were changed this summer by amendments from Prime Minister Milojko Spajić's cabinet, the new law reduced the requirement for the election of RTCG general director in terms of years of work experience in higher education, which was reduced from 10 to five years. Ministers from Democratic Montenegro did not vote for the amendments.
PES: Time is a masterful sieve
On the suspicions of media organizations and the civil sector that the amendments, in fact, set the conditions for the re-election of Raonic, the deputy of the Europe Now Movement (PES) Vasilije Čarapić denied this.
"That's not a correct thesis at all and that's not our motivation. Time is a master sieve," said Čarapić.
In June of this year, after changes in the law, Raonic submitted his resignation to the RTCG Council, which reappointed him as acting general director by majority vote. That decision of the Council was not supported only by Marijana Camović-Veličković.
From that position, Raonic, not long after, ran for general director of RTCG.
On August 31, by decision of the RTCG Council, Raonic was re-elected as the general director of that media house.
Bonus video:
