The Ministry of Culture and Media cannot impose anything on the Public Service, nor do they want to do so, but they expect that the Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) will soon fulfill its legal obligation and appoint an ombudsman.
This was said yesterday by the Director of the Department's Media Directorate Nedjeljko Rudovic during the conference where the results of the public opinion survey "Self-regulation in Montenegro: challenges and opportunities" were presented.
According to the research, four out of five respondents (74,5%) are not familiar with the concept of media self-regulation, while only one out of four (25,5%) knows this term, while almost 60 percent of respondents who expressed knowledge of the concept are very satisfied with the current condition.
Commenting on the results of the research, which was carried out with the support of the OSCE Mission in Montenegro, the vice-president of the RTCG Council Marijana Camović Veličković pointed out that that media company "has not had an ombudsman for almost half a year". She pointed out that this is a legal obligation and emphasized that there are deadlines within which any objections should be answered.
Camović Veličković also reminded that the state has legally conditioned private media that without an ombudsman, i.e. self-regulation, they cannot have access to state money from the Media Pluralism Fund.
"At the same time, the fifth contest for the ombudsman should be announced, and it is clear that the Council did not elect an ombudsman four times, because they are looking for a suitable, unknown person who will reject all objections that may come to the work of the Public Service. Private media are conditioned to have an ombudsman, and RTCG, as someone who has unlimited access to 20 million euros of state money, does not have that institution and has no intention of getting one soon," said Camović-Veličković, emphasizing the unfavorable situation of private media compared to the public service. .
Rudović pointed out that RTCG has an obligation to appoint an ombudsman.
"We have witnessed that so far several competitions have been canceled and that the person who was elected has renounced that position, that the competition has been re-announced, etc... The interest of this company and every citizen of Montenegro as the owner of a public service is that RTCG respects professional and ethical standard in reporting. In order for us to reach that goal, the Public Service Ombudsman is an irreplaceable institution and it is completely clear that the public's expectation is for everyone to be aware of their part of responsibility and that the Public Service needs an ombudsman, who will do this job according to his professional conscience. This means that he represents and fights for the promotion of the code of ethics," said Rudović.
He pointed out that this is the position of the Ministry of Culture and Media, but that they are not someone who can impose anything on the public service, and that they do not want to deal with it.
"There are institutions that deal with it," said Rudović.
"What is also interesting in this research is that two-thirds of citizens do not know that the Public Service has an ombudsman, and it is their responsibility to promote that institution," said Rudović. "The number of media outlets that have an ombudsman or an internal body in charge of monitoring compliance with ethical standards is constantly growing," said the Minister of Culture and Media. Tamara Vujović.
"Until the entry into force of the new law, we had only 10 percent of the media that were involved in some form of self-regulation. Out of over 200 media registered in the Media Registry, only 20 of them were part of self-regulatory bodies. Due to changes in legislation and new conditions for applying for funds from the Fund, we are witnessing a constant increase in this number. By the next competition for the Fund, we expect that around 50 percent of the media will meet the criteria and become part of a collective or internal self-regulatory body, which represents a great progress in strengthening responsibility and professionalism in the Montenegrin media space," Vujović said.
She stated that "five percent of funds for self-regulation have already been allocated through the Fund, which, when the Fund increases, according to the new law from 0,09 percent to 0,2 percent of the current budget, will amount to over 100 thousand euros."
The survey also showed that more than half of citizens - 50,1 percent support the Government's decision to financially support the self-regulation process. The attitude towards state participation in supporting the media is mostly positive, and 65,5 percent of respondents from the media believe that all media in Montenegro should be part of a single body for self-regulation. When it comes to the regulation of content on social networks, 61,5 percent of respondents believe that greater state regulations are not necessary, while 38,5 percent support their introduction.
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