RTCG Ombudsman accepts Camović Veličković's complaint about the text published on the Public Service Portal

The Ombudsman of the Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) accepted the complaint filed by RTCG Council member Marijana Camović Velicković against the text published on the public service's portal.

This was announced today by Camović Velicković.

She said that she objected to the fact that the response she submitted was published 8 minutes after the response to that response was published, which, according to her, represents a classic violation of the rules of the profession and media framing "which a public service should not be involved with."

"I would also like to inform you that this report was presented at a recent Council meeting held via the Zoom platform and that although I spoke about this problem, which I primarily consider to be a problem of the public service, the trampling of the journalistic profession that has clear rules, the ignoring of self-regulation and the institution of the ombudsman by the editors (in this case the portal), and not about the public service's attitude towards me personally, and that NOT ONE of the Council members present said a word on this topic. The standard objections that came from the 'general director' are not worth mentioning. There is an audio and video of everything," Camović Veličković pointed out.

She explains that on April 24, on the rtcg.me portal in the Society section, at 16:46 p.m., the text "Rakočević: RTCG implemented 14 out of 18 recommendations, the facts are clearer than the findings" was published, in which Mr. Rakočević disputes the allegations from the text that was only published at 16:54 p.m.

"After four unfulfilled recommendations, the DRI is giving up on its control of RTCG", which I had submitted to the media 25 hours earlier. Goran Rakočević is the Assistant General Director for Corporate Affairs. In my letter to the Ombudsman, I stated that since the public service portal "has experienced a rare, perhaps unique, phenomenon of publishing a controversial statement from which it was impossible to understand what the reaction was being made to, because the text to which Mr. Goran Rakočević's statement could refer was not previously published on that media outlet, I feel the need to ask you to officially state that this is not normal, and even less journalistic," adds Camović Večković.

Camović Velicković, among other things, stated in her complaint that she believes that the RTCG Portal, by the manner and timing of publishing the statement in question, violated basic professional standards of accuracy, objectivity, fairness and balance.

"It is not disputed that the editorial board has the right to assess the editorial relevance of the content, but it is disputed that the statement containing serious allegations about the work of the RTCG management was published only the next day, although it was delivered the previous day, 8 minutes after the editorial board's response was published. Such a sequence of publication did not allow the public to become acquainted with the primary allegations independently and in a timely manner, but rather the original text was immediately placed within the framework of the editorial response," she stated in the complaint.

She also emphasized, in her words, that it is necessary to establish "that the RTCG Portal violated professional standards of objectivity, fairness, balance and timely information, because the public interest statement was published with an unjustified delay, calculated to reduce the damage that could be caused to the person to whom the claims relate."

"Such behavior did not ensure real pluralism of opinion, but rather created its illusion," she said.

According to Camović Večković, the statement to the Ombudsman was given by the portal's editor, Marko Vešović, and the disputed texts were published unsigned, even though this is illegal.

Vešović, she adds, said that her claims were indisputable.

"Let me clarify: the daily editor of the Portal, after receiving the submitted statement, gave the order for its publication. However, in the regular work process, which involves the simultaneous editing and publication of a large number of contents, the colleague who commissioned the text published it when it was her turn, more precisely, when she had finished the previously commissioned and already started texts. In the meantime, the editorial staff delivered the text to Mr. Rakočević as a member of the team, and received Mr. Rakočević's reaction in a fairly short time, which another member of the editorial staff processed and published before publishing the original statement, unfortunately without consulting the colleague who commissioned the initial text. This created a situation that may seem illogical from the reader's perspective, because the response was published a few minutes before the content it refers to. However, the editorial staff believes that the aforementioned circumstance does not constitute a violation of the professional standards to which the applicant refers. Quite the contrary!", stated, among other things, Vešović.

Ivanovic accepted the complaint, establishing an omission "in the reporting of the Public Service Portal in the aforementioned disputed case and establishing a violation of professional standards of objectivity and timely information."

"The critical text about the DRI control was published eight minutes after the reaction of the Assistant General Director for Corporate Affairs was published, which violated the rules on chronology and balanced reporting. The Ombudsman believes that such an order of publication, despite the editorial team's claims about organizational failures, diminished the significance of the critical text and the equal treatment of information," said Ivanović.