The Basic Court in Podgorica announced that they had rendered a verdict annulling as illegal the decision of Radio and Television of Montenegro on the appointment of General Director Boris Raonic from June 1, 2023.
The public service was ordered to re-appoint the general director from among the registered candidates, according to the terms of the public competition for the appointment to that position at the head of the RTCG from June 17, 2021, within 15 days from the finality of the verdict.
The claim of the director of Radio-television Nikšić, Nikola Marković, was rejected, in the part in which it was requested that a re-appointment for general director be carried out among the remaining candidates from that competition, but that Raonic should not be one of the candidates.
RTCG announced on its portal that it will file an appeal against the court's decision.
"The Basic Court in Podgorica issued a verdict which annulled as illegal the decision of RTCG on the appointment of the general director Boris Raonic from 01.06.2023, so the said public company was ordered to re-appoint the general director from among the registered candidates, according to the terms of the public competition for the appointment of that position at the head of the RTCG from June 17.06.2021, 15, within XNUMX days of the verdict becoming final," the court announced.
In the explanation of the verdict, the court states that when making the aforementioned decision, the defendant was obliged to appreciate the factual situation, which results from the documentation submitted by the candidates for the public competition in question during the first application, and the exceptional factual situation that existed in relation to each of the candidates at the time of publication of the competition.
"At the time of the announcement of the public competition in question, Boris Raonić, at the time of application to the public competition and appointment as general director, was a member of the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media (SAEM), i.e. he was a public official appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro, which in contrary to the provision of Article 29 of the Law on the National Broadcaster of Montenegro, which stipulates that the members of the Council cannot be appointed or appointed by the President of Montenegro. the court also points to the provision of Article 1 of the same Act, which stipulates that a person who cannot be a member of the Council cannot be appointed as the general director of the RTCG No. 2/50 of 5/3110/21, when the first RTCG decision of 04.01.2023/06.08.2021/13.08.2021 was annulled which must be a limiting factor, so he cannot be appointed general director of RTCG according to the public competition in question. The fact that Raonic on 17.06.2021. submitted his resignation from membership in SEAM has no influence on a different decision of the court, since at the time of the announcement of the public competition from XNUMX. in that position, appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro, as a result of which he could not be elected to the position of General Director of RTCG. The decision in question on the appointment of Raonic is illegal also because it does not contain a valid explanation, i.e. the criteria that prevailed in favor of the chosen candidate, i.e. the reasons that decided to support the chosen candidate, were not stated," the Basic Court announced.
An appeal can be lodged against this decision within eight days from the day of receipt of the written dispatch.
Nikola Marković sued the RTCG for the annulment of the last decision on the selection of Raonic as the first man of the Public Service.
With the lawsuit, Marković requested that the general director be reappointed from among the remaining candidates from the 2021 competition, but that Raonic not be one of the candidates.
In their response to the lawsuit, RTCG announced that they acted according to the order of the courts and that there were no legal obstacles during the second appointment of Raonic.
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