Media Center, Center for Civic Education (CCE), Center for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG) and Media Institute of Montenegro (IMCG) filed two criminal charges today with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica due to suspected illegalities in the process of electing members of the RTCG Council.
As stated in a joint statement by these non-governmental organizations (NGOs), a criminal complaint has been filed against candidate for member of the RTCG Council and current president of the RTCG Council Veselin Drljević, on suspicion of inciting the falsification of documentation used in his candidacy process.
The second criminal complaint, as they state, was filed against the Secretary of the Administrative Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro, Goranka Vučinić, and currently unknown officials engaged in the verification of candidacies, on suspicion that by failing to perform their official duties, they enabled the acceptance of documentation as complete and legal, which, according to the complaint, did not meet the requirements prescribed by law.
"A criminal complaint was filed against the candidate for member of the RTCG Council and the current president of the RTCG Council, Veselin Drljević, because he incited an unknown person to commit the criminal offense of forging a document (Article 412 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro) in order to enable the acquisition of unlawful benefits for himself, as a member of the RTCG Council in the new mandate, thereby committing the criminal offense of inciting the commission of a criminal offense under Article 24 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro," the statement states.
According to them, the List of timely and complete proposals for four candidates for members of the RTCG Council also includes the non-governmental organization Association for the Protection and Preservation of Nature Kapetanovo Jezero, which has not existed under that name since 2021.
"The only conclusion in this situation, which we hope will also be clear to the ODT, is that Veselin Drljević communicated with an unidentified person whom he persuaded and incited to fill out the act on Drljević's appointment, the balance sheet and income statement, and the NGO Work Report for 2023, 2024 and 2025. It is unlikely that an unidentified person alone, without anyone's persuasion, came to the Parliament of Montenegro to submit forged documents for a non-existent NGO, and specifically for the candidate for member of the RTCG Council, Veselin Drljević," the statement reads.
They add that a criminal complaint has been filed against the Secretary of the Administrative Committee in the Parliament of Montenegro, Goranka Vučinić, and unidentified persons from the service managed by Goranka Vučinić because, as persons responsible for checking the documentation of candidates for members of the RTCG Council, they, by their failure to perform their official duties, inaction and conscientious behavior, enabled the unlawful acquisition of unlawful benefits by the illegally proposed candidates for members of the RTCG Council, Veselin Drljević and Amar Škrijelj, thereby committing the criminal offense of abuse of official position under Article 416 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
"Based on the aforementioned articles of the Law, as well as on the public statements of the President and members of the Administrative Board, the expert service of the Administrative Board, headed by Secretary Goranka Vučinić, was responsible for checking the completeness of the documentation of candidates for members of the RTCG Council. More precisely, the expert service and Secretary Goranka Vučinić were responsible for checking, among other documentation, whether the balance sheets and profit and loss accounts of non-governmental organizations (as authorized proposers) for the previous three years (for 2023, 2024 and 2025) prior to the date of publication of the public call, prove that they have fulfilled two of the three conditions from Article 26 of the Law on the National Public Broadcaster-Public Media Service of Montenegro, that: '2) in the previous three years prior to the publication of the public call for proposing candidates for members of the Council, the annual budget for the implementation of activities in the area in which the candidate for member of the Council is proposed was not less than 3.000 euros; 3) in the previous three years prior to the publication of the public call for proposing candidates for members of the Council, at least 2.000 euros during one calendar year were spent on the implementation of activities in the area in which the candidate for Council member is proposed," the joint statement states.
They add that the expert service of the Administrative Board, headed by Goranka Vučinić, did not check the balance sheets and the fulfillment of this condition for NGOs as authorized proposers.
"The expert service of the Administrative Board has not determined whether, for example, the NGO Football Academy pro - school of football has any connection with the media field. In addition to the unclear connection of the Football Academy with activities in the media field, this organization had an income of 1217 euros in 2023, which is below the legal requirement of 3000 euros. The same question is raised for all other NGOs that are on the list of support for candidates Drljević and Škrijelj," it states.
Non-governmental organizations believe that it is of crucial importance that the Prosecutor's Office urgently investigates all allegations in the reports, determines possible criminal liability, and dispels any suspicion that the election of members of the RTCG Council was conducted contrary to the law.
"It is not only the responsibility of individuals that is at stake, but also the credibility of the procedure for selecting the governing bodies of the public service, as well as public trust in the implementation of media laws, which were one of the important conditions on Montenegro's European path. We would also like to remind you that civil society organizations have been multiple times warned of irregularities in the procedure for electing members of the RTCG Council and called on the competent institutions to conduct a detailed check of the complete documentation of the candidates before completing the process. Unfortunately, these warnings did not result in an adequate reaction from the competent authorities, which is why it is now necessary for the Prosecutor's Office to assume its legal role and establish all relevant facts," the statement concluded, signed by: Goran Đurović, Daliborka Uljarević Media Center, Center for Civic Education (CCE), Milka Tadić Mijović, Center for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG), Olivera Nikolić, Media Institute of Montenegro (IMCG).
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