NGO Group: Do not vote on candidates for membership in the RTCG Council before verifying the legality of the candidacy process

We demand that the Parliament of Montenegro not vote on candidates for membership in the Council of Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) before verifying the legality of their candidacy procedure, 17 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) announced today.

"17 NGOs express deep concern about the circumstances in which the Parliament of Montenegro is preparing to vote on the election of members of the Radio Television of Montenegro Council, and call on the President of the Parliament and the MPs not to decide on the candidates for members of that Council until the competent authorities have completed the verification of all allegations of illegalities in the candidacy process," states the statement 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 Reporting (CIN-CG), Tea Gorjanc Prelević, Human Rights Action (HRA), 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), Budislavka Mira Saveljić, Safe Women's House, Muamera Muslić, NGO Đakomo Adriatic, Boris Nedović, NGO Center of the North, Marina Vujačić, Association of Disabled Youth of Montenegro (UMHCG), Radomir Kracković, Media Union of Montenegro, Aida Perović, NGO Prima and Slavica Striković, Women's Action.

In a statement, a group of 17 NGOs said they recall that today four civil society organizations – Media Center, Center for Civic Education (CCE), Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) and the Media Institute of Montenegro (IMCG) – filed criminal charges with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica.

"The reports relate to a well-founded suspicion that the current president of the RTCG Council and candidate for a new mandate, Veselin Drljević, incited the falsification of documentation supporting his candidacy, and that responsible persons in the Administrative Committee of the Assembly, by failing to perform their official duties, allowed the irregular and illegal documentation to pass as complete," the statement reads.

The group of 17 NGOs stated that "the fact that the list of authorized proposers included a non-governmental organization that, according to publicly available data, no longer exists as of 2021, is particularly concerning, as well as that the financial documentation of some NGO proposers does not meet the legally prescribed requirements regarding the minimum annual budget is particularly concerning."

"Therefore, we call on the Parliament of Montenegro to:

• does not include in the agenda an item relating to the election of members of the RTCG Council;
• wait for the outcome of the investigation by the Basic State Prosecutor's Office, or in the meantime, the deputies themselves should take an interest and, in the general interest, verify the allegations in the criminal report by simply reviewing the documentation in the possession of the Parliament;
• "After completing this check, the competition should be canceled and a new one announced."

17 NGOs said that "the public service media must be protected from any doubt about the legitimacy of its governing bodies."

"The credibility of RTCG and citizens' trust in media regulations must not be sacrificed due to anyone's intentional or accidental omissions. We also recall that public calls for the appointment of members of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services were canceled twice, without convincing legal arguments, while the public call for the appointment of members of the RTCG Council was deliberately postponed for several months. If the Parliament was ready to postpone and cancel procedures when it suited the political majority, there is no excuse not to do so now, when it is required to protect the legality and credibility of RTCG," the group of 17 NGOs wrote in a statement.