Vesna Pejović, a long-time former editor at Television of Montenegro (TVCG), stated that the persecution of the Director General of Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), Boris Raonić, mainly targets colleagues who identify as Montenegrins.
Pejović stated this, among other things, in a letter sent to the Embassy of the European Union (EU) in Montenegro, the Embassy of the United States of America (USA) in Montenegro, and the European Parliament's special rapporteur for Montenegro, Marjan Šarec.
"The biggest mistake in the history of RTCG, its current illegal manager Boris Raonić, is unstoppably leading it towards collapse and destruction in terms of programming, personnel, finances and every other aspect. The latest target of this expert, with modest education and even more modest knowledge when it comes to this medium, is long-time director and former RTCG ombudsman Danijela Popović. Just these days, she received an offer to move to the Multimedia and Design department after 25 years of successful and creative work as a director. (This is the graphic service of directors and editors.) In the future, until the court decides otherwise, Popović will have to replace her demonstrated and proven creativity with pressing keys. She is being forced to do so in an extremely unprofessional, inhumane way, because her position as director has been terminated, without notice. No one has told her what her future job is, let alone provide her with training for that position, which is their duty," Pejović pointed out in the letter.
She added that if Popović refuses the transfer, she will be fired.
"But who in RTCG and Montenegro respects the court's decisions?!!! The Director General of RTCG and the Council of that media house certainly do not. Did Danijela Popović resent the Ombudsman General because of her professionalism and impartiality, or because of the public withdrawal of her candidacy for Ombudsman in my favor, even though she met all the requirements, or because she is Montenegrin...? We should not ignore the fact that Raonić's persecutions are mainly exposed to colleagues who identify as Montenegrins, for which, apart from that fact, she cannot have any other justification," Pejović said.
She stated that "it should be recalled that Danijela Popović, who Raonić now says was not engaged enough as a director, produced and directed hours of programming, both informative and feature and documentary."
"The fact that some of her shows are used as teaching aids in high schools is enough to tell us about the quality of her work. Obviously, that is not a sufficient argument for Raonic. Maybe Popovic could have done 'worse'? Like journalists who were unwillingly transferred from Television to Radio. (Raonic probably could no longer watch them, and radio has incomparably fewer followers than TV.) Is this a lesser degradation compared to Raonic's decision to transfer a top engineer, who did an excellent job with me in the RAI studio in Bari in 2009, while working on the TV bridge for the 100th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi in Montenegro, to the Statistics Department? Or when he moved a long-time respected editor to Documentation to catalog cassettes," Pejovic wrote in a letter sent to the EU and US embassies and to Šarec.
In her words, "the list of his misdeeds does not end here, because in a country where court rulings concerning him are not respected and ignored, this almighty man is untouchable."
"He is thus waging war against both unions in RTCG and is obviously very persuasive to some members to leave the unions. The list of reputable professionals who are not to Raonic's taste is long, as well as those whose dictates are unstoppably destroying that media house, because they are mostly media workers who have left their mark on RTCG and contributed to its development. He has also become 'famous' internationally because the first decision he made when he took the throne was to close down the Department for Italian-speaking cooperation, which shocked Italian partners but also other members of this association from other countries. At the recent celebration in Rome of the 40th anniversary of the Comunità Italofona, which I attended, because colleagues do not forget my performance and results so far, this unreasonable and shameful act of Raonic was mentioned several times. Moreover, he ignored all attempts by the management of the Italian-speaking community to get in touch with him, he does not respond to emails.... It is not surprising considering that Raonic does not communicate even with his colleagues in the house he "(If he can even be called a colleague because he is omnipotent like God, or rather his caricature, just as the state that does not react and allows all this to happen is caricatured.)", Pejović stated.
She asked in the letter, "Is such behavior befitting the head of a public service broadcaster in a country that aspires to join the EU and brags loudly about its results?"
"The fact that Raonic is dealing with a proven staff in this media outlet in such a primitive way is probably not a problem for some. (Solidarity has never been a strong point for media workers in Montenegro.) However, it is a problem for all citizens of Montenegro, who finance this media outlet, because it does so at the expense of the quality of the program. (We increasingly hear viewers who claim that they do not watch the program at all.) To make the paradox even greater, for all these and numerous other "achievements", this expert receives, by Montenegrin standards, an enormous salary, which is an open secret, none of the leadership of this country has. It is evident that not only does it not bother them because they wisely remain silent, but, obviously out of some interest, they publicly misinterpret the EU's warnings to finally implement the Law in the public service and respect court decisions," Pejović wrote in a letter she sent to the EU and US embassies and Šarec.
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