The Basic Court in Podgorica has for the second time annulled the decision of the Radio and Television Council of Montenegro (RTCG) which Boris Raonic elected as the general director of the public service in September last year.
The first instance verdict was handed down by the judge Mladen Paunović, according to the lawsuit of Raonic's opponent for director of RTCG, Slaven Knezović.
"I hope that the long-standing degradation of professionals and RTCG by a repeatedly illegal director will finally stop," said Knezović.
According to the ruling, the RTCG Council did not state specific reasons why the criteria prevailed in favor of Raonic in the competition for director. The Basic Court previously, in July of this year, also accepted the lawsuit Andrijan Kadija i Zarko Bozovic, ordering RTCG to make a new and legally based decision on the selection of the Director General from the registered candidates who meet the requirements under the Public Competition from July 2024, within eight days from the date of the judgment becoming final.
“Record holder for the number of illegal appointments”
Illegal RTCG Director General Boris Raonić has long since become a record holder for the number of illegal appointments to public office, and the new first-instance verdict in the lawsuit filed by Slaven Knezović is a new confirmation of the tragic situation at RTCG, the director of the NGO Media Center and former long-time member of the Public Service Council assessed for "Vijesti" yesterday. Goran Đurović.
He reminded that two final verdicts had previously been issued that Raonić had been illegally elected as the director of RTCG, but that the head of the public service did not want to resign and give up his position.
"In order to retain his position, Raonić even encouraged members of the RTCG Council to disrespect the verdict of the Higher Court, which is why four members of this body were sentenced in the first instance to seven months of suspended prison sentences," Đurović emphasized.
He said that Raonić has been performing his function illegally for four years, and the damage to the budget of RTCG, that is, to all citizens of Montenegro, is over 200.000 euros.
"In addition to the material damage, the illegal appointment of Raonić has become a regular part of the European Union's annual reports on Montenegro. Raonić's election and his long-term illegal stay in office are a consequence of the application of the previous law on RTCG, when the parliamentary majority elected politically suitable members of the RTCG Council. Only when the process of appointing all members of the Council under the new Law on RTCG from 2024 is fully implemented can we expect that inappropriate political influence on RTCG will be reduced and that the new members of the Council will take into account the public interest more than the interests of political parties," Đurović said.
He assessed that "the only people worse than Raonic, who does not care about court verdicts, are those who brought him to office, and those are the parties that hold power."
Raonic was chosen without any specific reasons or advantages
The reasoning of the verdict states that in the contested decision, the RTCG Council did not specify which goals from the RTCG Development Strategy 2023–2027 that Raonić fulfilled better than other candidates, nor did it explain what the advantages of his work plan were.
The President and some members of the RTCG Council were found guilty of abuse of office by the first-instance verdict of the Basic Court, and were given a suspended sentence of seven months in prison if they repeat the criminal offense within two years.
The decision to appoint Raonić, the verdict states, does not contain an explanation of the reasons indicating how, during the period in which he performed the duties of the General Director of RTCG, he achieved a significant increase in the viewership of all media, nor does the explanation of the decision state which of the most significant international institutions, according to whose assessments the balance of the news program was improved, which set him apart from other candidates.
"Therefore, the reasoning for the contested decision should have stated specific reasons as to what criteria prevailed in favor of the selected candidate, i.e. the reasons that determined the support to be given to the selected candidate, which was not done in this case. Accordingly, the defendant was obliged to state clear and valid reasons in the contested decision that served as the basis for its adoption, so that the decision in question could be examined in court proceedings," the verdict states.
Although, Judge Paunović notes, it is indisputable that the members of the Council have discretionary authority to choose between candidates who meet the requirements, it is necessary to state specific reasons, i.e. clear criteria, that determine support for one of the candidates (are there references, if so, what are they, is there previous work, work experience and what work experience, in which jobs, what is the connection between those jobs and the jobs of the General Director, is it communicative, as well as other similar criteria...), because it is not enough to simply state some of the reasons, without any specifics of what those reasons consist of, so that they can be examined.
The Court considers that objective and measurable criteria were not applied, i.e. the RTCG Council did not in any way examine them comparatively, taking into account all their references, explaining for what reason (criteria) it considers one candidate to be better, and according to which criterion the other is better, so that it could collectively, in the end, assess which criteria are decisive and which mostly decide in favor of one candidate - Raonić.
According to the first ruling of the Basic Court, which was issued on July 11 following a lawsuit by Kadija and Božović, the Council's decision to appoint Raonić as director is made unlawful by the work experience he gained through a previous unlawful appointment, and that work experience was the decisive criterion that set him apart from all other candidates in the competition.
Courts have previously ruled on several occasions that Raonić was illegally elected as the Director General of RTCG in 2021 and 2023.
He resigned from that position in July last year, was then elected acting director, and was appointed to a full term in September.
This followed the amendment of the Law on the National Public Broadcaster and the changes to the requirements that the Director General must meet - five instead of ten years of work experience in management positions in areas relevant to the performance of the activities of the Public Media Service (journalism, art, culture, audio-visual media activities, sociology, history, law, economics, etc.).
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