At the time when the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was in power in Podgorica, RTV Podgorica spent hundreds of thousands of euros of citizens' money on luxury light bulbs, iPhones, lunches for "experts", accommodation in hotels abroad and expenses for "official trips", while columnists such as Miodrag Vlahović, Nikola Samardžić and Azem Vlasi received substantial fees, said the executive director of RTV Podgorica Vladimir Otašević.
He said this in response to the statement of the head of the DPS councilors' club in Podgorica, Andrija Klikovac, who said that the capital city budget allocates 2,8 million euros for Gradska TV, which dedicates only 10 percent of its programming to local topics, while citizens' money is spent on "quasi analysts, appanages of family members of local officials and some journalists who do not even have a university degree."
Otašević denied the claim that the Capital City is allocating 2,8 million euros for City TV, saying that the amount is actually around 2,6 million euros during 2025.
He said that since the arrival of the new Council, management and editorial staff of RTV Podgorica, the practice of publishing inaccurate and/or half-truthful and malicious information has become established.
"This time, the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services of Montenegro (AMU) was involved in the placement of one of the malicious pieces of information. They claim that they conducted research and that of all local public broadcasters in Montenegro, Gradska TV deals with local topics the least, only 10%.
"When I read that headline in the media, I thought for a moment that it was probably a survey from 2021, 2022 or 2023, because it is illogical for it to be published in 2025, when Gradska TV broadcasts numerous shows that deal with local topics," Otašević said in his reaction.
He assessed that some interest groups, which he said he had spoken about in some previous statements, needed this research to attack Gradska TV and added that "there is not much mystery there."
"But that is ad hoc for a longer period of time, because some would not have material for criticism and attacks. Unfortunately for them, Gradska TV is in a good position. And of course, as usual, critics on duty respond to such malicious announcements (data from research based on one week of monitoring, which took place last year), "Otašević added.
The Executive Director of RTV Podgorica pointed out that Klikovac does not mention how citizens' money was spent at a time when DPS was in power in the capital and had, as Otašević claims, a crucial influence on editorial policy and everything related to RTV Podgorica.
"If he were to deal with it at all, he could first say that the DPS city administration, without any need, bought luxurious 'Swarovski' light bulbs (how they were recorded in the census records is a separate story), instead of buying, for example, equipment for the City Radio, which had to be donated later by a private company. Some people in particular liked expensive 'IPhone' phones, dozens of them, with citizens' money, which we still cannot trace today.
"During the DPS era, citizens even paid the founder of the Liberal Democratic Party in neighboring Serbia, Nikola Samardžić, through Gradska TV, and like him, the former 'time out' minister from the Klikovac party - Miodrag Vlahović - had a contract under which he received 150 euros per written text on 'working days'," Otašević revealed.
He added that the columnist and founder of the party of former Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Čedomir Jovanović received 2023 euros net on this basis in 4.400 alone, and his plane tickets from Serbia were also paid for.
"And Vlahović has now taken to social media and called Gradska TV a "Taliban bulletin board". Of course, it is since Vlahović and his daughter no longer receive any remuneration from it.
Azem Vlasi, a politician and advisor to the former Prime Minister of Kosovo, was also a columnist for RTV Podgorica. There were also hundreds of thousands of euros, which went to fees and lunches for 'experts', accommodation in hotels abroad and the costs of 'official trips'...
Not to mention that journalists from the local public broadcaster were wiretapped and filmed for years. This is just a small part of something called the past of RTV Podgorica, whose guild, along with the hatred that was spread from the small screens, was paid for by the citizens of Podgorica. Such times are over," concluded Otašević.
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