Candidates for the ombudsman of the Radio Television of Montenegro (RTCG), Vesna Pejović and Žarko Božović, filed a lawsuit against the members of the Council for the election of the RTCG ombudsman.
On November 19, journalist Ivan Ivanović was elected as the new RTCG ombudsman with four votes.
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In the explanation of the lawsuit, Pejović and Božović stated, among other things, that Ivanović is a professor of physical education and that in his 46 years of life he spent the least amount of working time in the media.
"On October 25, 10, the competition for the RTCG Ombudsman was announced for the fifth time, in which we applied - Vesna Pejović and Žarko Božović, while the former Ombudsperson Danijela Popović, along with the other two candidates from the RTCG, also competed alongside us. Even though in previous contests we met all the conditions prescribed by the contest and the law, (and even in the fourth Vesna Pejović was the only candidate after withdrawing the candidacy of Danijela Popović and Žarko Božović in her favor), the RTCG Council, under very strange circumstances, did not decide on any of the candidates offered," the explanation points out.
It is added that "due to the Council's irresponsible attitude, the Republic of Montenegro did not have an ombudsman for six months, more precisely, the citizens of Montenegro did not have the opportunity to complain about the violation of professional standards, of which there were many in the Public Service during that period. (We are witnessing public reaction two university professors, one of whom was previously a member of the Council of RTCG, making fun of our two female colleagues, and not to mention because there were too many omissions)".
"Due to all of the above, as well as the evident arbitrariness of the Council of the RTCG, which did not have as many as five distinguished journalists and proven professionals - long-time editors at the RTCG, we reacted publicly on several occasions, and Vesna Pejović also sent an open letter to the ambassador of the European Commission in Montenegro Johan Zatler, who sent us an invitation for an interview and which will take place next week because of our public response, he withdrew his candidacy," the explanation reads.
In that document, it is stated that in the fifth repeated competition published on October 25.10.2024, 10. reported "four candidates - three who we applied for on several occasions and who met the requirements also according to the old law, which stipulated XNUMX years of work experience, and the selected candidate whose election we learned about from the media".
"He is completely unknown to us and to the public of Montenegro and does not meet the conditions of the competition that requires him to be an established media expert. In written form, on November 25, 11, through the RTCG archive, we sent a request to the RTCG Council, in which we asked that the decision on the election of the RTCG Ombudsman be submitted to us in writing, within the deadline provided by the law the lawyer who gives legal opinions to the Council only referred us to the RTCG website. On the RTCG website, we only found a notice without an explanation as to why the Council decided on that particular candidate and not the others, and without legal instruction," the explanation reads.
In their explanation, Pejović and Božović said that although they warned the lawyer Balša Milić that this was not a decision and that they requested that it be delivered to us, this was not done and their request was also ignored.
"Also, our request to allow us to see the documents of the chosen candidate, which they were obliged to allow us as opposing candidates, was also ignored," the explanation reads.
Pejović and Božović also wrote in their explanation that all this, as well as earlier decisions of the Council, lead them to suspect that they did not act in accordance with the law this time, so they used their long-term journalistic experience to investigate the biography of a hitherto unknown person - Ivan Ivanović.
"If the data he provided in his CV is to be believed, the mentioned candidate is a professor of physical education and in his 46 years of life, he has spent the least amount of working time in the media. He did an internship for a year at Radio Montenegro, and for a time at IN Television was engaged in sports journalism. There is no evidence of paid contributions and taxes during his work in that media. He submitted a paper certificate from 08/07/2019, signed by the bankruptcy trustee, who confirms that Ivan Ivanović from Podgorica was employed at 'IN Co' DOO Podgorica from 01/04/2008 to 09/01/2014 as a journalist and presenter in the news and sports editorial office of the television 'IN CO' DOO Podgorica, with a university degree," the statement of claim states.
It is also stated that the question arises as to what the journalist was doing in the medium that already stopped broadcasting the program in May 2012, and the bankruptcy was declared on 25.12.2013.
"As can be seen from his CV, for more than a decade he has been dealing with jobs that have no contact points with the media and media science, so his ability and qualification to deal with a more than delicate job - to assess and decide to whether there were violations of professional standards in response to citizens' complaints, as well as that he himself observes and publicly points out violations of the journalistic code, which are abundant in the RTCG program RTCG, they suspect that the Council was not guided by professional standards, but again by the friendly and business ties of Council President Veselin Drljević, who is the founder and president of the Association of Sports Journalists, and who previously tried to install his longtime friend and business partner who withdrew the documents after our public response. Why wouldn't Veselin Drljević do the same with the newly appointed ombudsman, who, among other things, deals with sports-related matters, which leads to possible corruption. We also remind you that the competition specifies that persons who are in business and friendly relations with members of the RTCG Council cannot be elected," concludes the explanation of the lawsuit filed by Pejović and Božović regarding the election of the RTCG ombudsman.
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