The University of Donja Gorica and the University of Adriatic have proposed the current member of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services (SAMU) Branko Bošković for a new mandate in that body, "Vijesti" learns.
That proposal will be presented to MPs during the Administrative Committee session scheduled for Friday.
Bošković has been a member of SAMU since 2021, but his term expires in April 2026.
He recently resigned from his position as president, following a decision by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption that he had violated regulations because he voted for his own election to head SAMU four years ago.
President of the Parliament of Montenegro Andrija Mandic On November 7th, it issued a public call for universities to appoint one SAMU member.
Last week, the Administrative Board established a list of candidates for SAMU members from among NGOs in the media field, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the PEN Center. To Dragoljub Duško Vuković, Niko Martinović i Jelena Šušanj.
The Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services has been in a reduced composition since December last year, as the mandates of representatives of non-governmental organizations in the field of media, Milan Radović and the Montenegrin PEN Center, Rajko Todorović, expired. Although the competition was supposed to be announced in the middle of last year, Mandić did so in January this year, but soon withdrew the invitation, explaining that he was doing so "due to a technical error". Two candidacies were submitted for the repeated competition - Vuković was proposed by non-governmental organizations, while Martinović was the candidate of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, but the Administrative Board assessed them as incomplete at the end of March.
The NGO that nominated Vuković at the time announced that such a decision by the Administrative Board was "politically motivated and legally unfounded, but also a clear expression of the ruling majority's intention to capture the media sector through party politics at the cost of jeopardizing Montenegro's European path."
A few days later, the Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Podgorica said that it was urgently necessary to appoint new members of SAMU, in order to ensure its functioning and independence.
Although the Administrative Committee noted this summer that Vuković and Martinović's candidacies had been submitted, they did not receive the required number of votes at the parliamentary session on July 30. Out of a total of 56 MPs, 12 voted in favor of the proposal, while the others - 44 of them - abstained.
In its latest progress report, the European Commission stressed that the Parliament has not yet appointed a member of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services and warned that this "may have consequences for Chapter 10 in the negotiations with the EU."
"The Parliament has repeatedly failed to appoint two members of the AMU Council, significantly exceeding the deadline prescribed by the Law on Audiovisual Media Services. The Parliament has twice annulled the competition for the selection of members. Additionally, in the third repeated attempt, in July 2025, the Parliament again failed to appoint members of the AMU Council. This situation prevents the full implementation of the legal framework and may have consequences for Chapter 10 in the negotiations with the EU. Montenegro must urgently appoint the remaining members of the AMU Council," the report states.
Mandate for current members Andrijana Nikolic i Edin Koljenović expires in June 2026.
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