Doubts about the correctness of the documentation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that proposed Veselin Drljević as a member of the RTCG Council have proven to be justified, according to part of the civil sector, which confirms that the political parties in power have decided to elect their candidates contrary to the law and its spirit, according to a statement by a group of NGOs and civic activists.
They state that there are indications that some of the organizations that supported Drljević do not meet the requirements prescribed by law.
According to their statements, several examples indicate that certain NGOs are either not registered in current databases, or have changed their name, activity and authorized persons, or do not have financial reports that would confirm compliance with legal criteria.
"For example, the non-governmental organization Association for the Protection and Preservation of Nature Kapetanovo Lake, which supported Veselin Drljević, was registered on 30.09.2010, under number 5261, and Labud Minić, based in Kolašin, is listed as the authorized person. This data is available in the old Register of Active Non-Governmental Organizations of the Ministry of Public Administration from 25.03.2021. However, in the current register of the Ministry of Regional Investment Development and Cooperation with NGOs (current register, published at https://ngo.gov.me), there is no organization Association for the Protection and Preservation of Nature Kapetanovo Lake. A search for entry 5261 shows that the statute, address, name and authorized person changed during 2021. The new name of this organization is Association for Information and Publishing Activities Radio Svetigora, and the authorized person is Dalibor Milaković. This organization appears as the founder of Radio Svetigora in the register kept by the Agency for AVM services. The decision to transfer the approval lists changes in the name, seat and authorized person," the statement said.
It is added that the list of NGOs that have supported Veselin Drljević also includes organizations that have no known activities in the media field.
"For example, the Center for Culture and Education (there are no financial reports available for the last three years). It is interesting that the NGO Let's Preserve Democratic Values is registered at the same address as the Center for Culture and Education, with the last available report for this NGO being for 2018, and there is no publicly available data on activities carried out in the field of media," the statement reads.
It is also emphasized that it is unknown what kind of connection the NGO Center for Rural Development of Montenegro has with the media, as well as the NGO Academy of Football Pro - School of Football with the media sector.
"In addition to the unclear connection of the Football Academy with media activities, according to data available on the internet, the Football Academy had an income of 1217 euros in 2023, which is below the legal requirement of 3000 euros. The NGO Writers' Association is an organization primarily in the field of culture and the activities of this NGO in the media field are not known, which had to be financed with at least 2000 euros per year in the period 2023-2025, in order to meet the condition to propose Drljević as a member of the RTCG Council in that category," the signatories of the statement state.
They emphasize that neither of the two journalist associations that supported Veselin Drljević have available financial reports for the last three years.
"Therefore, there is doubt about the fulfillment of the conditions that from 2023 to 2025 they had an annual budget of over 3000 euros, which is a legal obligation if they want to propose a candidate for a member of the RTCG Council. More precisely, among those who supported Veselin Drljević is the Cetinje Journalists Association, led by Nikola Vujanović, who is also employed by RTCG, as well as one of his sons, while the other son is currently an intern at RTCG. The income of this NGO in 2023 was 1900 euros, which means that it does not meet the legal requirement of at least 3000 euros in annual income (from 2023 to 2025) to be able to propose a candidate for a member of the RTCG Council. There are no financial reports available for the last three years for the NGO Society of Montenegrin Journalists, whose founder and first president is Dragan Mitov Đurović, who is also the Secretary General of SUBNOR, and the current president is Čedo Vukotić, and one of the representatives of this "NGO is also employed by RTCG," the statement said.
It is also added that there are no publicly available financial reports for the last three years for the Association of Sports Journalists of Southeast Europe in the Fight against Doping.
Just these few examples show that the documentation for all candidates needs to be carefully reviewed, because it already seems obvious that the majority of NGOs that supported Veselin Drljavić do not meet some of the legally prescribed requirements, the signatories state.
They also expressed doubts about the validity of the documentation for candidate Amar Škrijelj.
"According to data available on the Company Wall, the NGO Fabrika mladih, which supported candidate Škirijelj, had an income of 7 euros in 2023, which is below the legal requirement of at least 3000 euros," they added in the statement.
The signatories expressed their belief, based on data collected from the internet, that the parliamentary service did not properly assess the fulfillment of legal requirements and documentation of candidates for members of the RTCG Council.
"If the government continues to insist on these candidates, it will openly demonstrate its intention to render meaningless everything that has been done to draft media laws for more than three years, but also to trample on the basic principles of the rule of law. At the heart of these principles is respect for the legally prescribed conditions and the application of clear criteria for the selection of all members of the RTCG Council. Otherwise, a new majority is given the opportunity to elect candidates suitable for them in four years, regardless of the fact that they personally or those who propose them do not meet the conditions. In this way, we will never have a professional public media service," the statement says.
They remind that the law prescribes criteria to ensure that only active NGOs from certain fields (human rights, media) can elect their representatives through the required process, and that the goal of the legal conditions and criteria for the candidates themselves and authorized proposers, including NGOs, was to elect people to the RTCG Council who would be resistant to various influences.
"We point out that only this information, which we obtained through a brief search of the internet and available databases, should encourage the Administrative Board to make all documentation of all candidates public as early as Tuesday at the session of this board when all candidates are scheduled to be heard. There is no reason that would be in the public interest not to dispel all doubts by publicly publishing the documentation before the process of electing new members of the RTCG Council is completed. We believe that it is much better to resolve all doubts in the phase before the election of members of the RTCG Council, than to later deal with determining the criminal liability of all those who participated in the illegal process. Bearing in mind that the set of media laws was also a condition for obtaining a positive IBAR, we will inform the EU institutions about this violation of the law and the political influence on RTCG that continues and request that they take action to stop the government from yet another manipulation or, in some other way, sanction it," the statement concludes.
The statement was signed by:
Goran Đurović, Media Center Olivera Nikolić, Media Institute of Montenegro (IMCG) Daliborka Uljarević, Center for Civic Education (CCE) Milka Tadić Mijović, Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN-CG) Tea Gorjanc Prelević—Action for Human Rights Darko Ivanović- NGO 35mm Zdravko Janjušević, Bijelo Polje Democratic Center Nataša Nelević, NOVA - Center for Feminist Culture Zorana Marković- Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO) Nevenka Vuksanović- Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) Muamera Muslić, NGO Đakomo Adriatic Boris Nedović, NGO Center of the North Marina Vujačić-Association of Youth with Disabilities Nataša Međedović-SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence Nikšić Radomir Kračković-Media Syndicate of Montenegro Aida Perović- NGO Prima
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