Ombudsperson of RTCG, Danijela Popović, accepted the complaint of Human Rights Action (HRA), submitted on behalf of 18 non-governmental organizations because RTCG did not publish information in the central Dnevnik (News) about their joint protest against the re-election of Boris Raonić as director of RTCG. The Ombudsperson has recommended to the RTCG Council to accept the objection.
In a statement from 6 June 2023, 18 NGOs – Human Rights Action (HRA), Spectra Association, Centre for Civic Education (CCE), Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), Women’s Rights Center (WRC), Centre for Civil Liberties (CEGAS), Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro, Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO), Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro (DPNCG), European Association for Law and Finance (EALF), Institute Alternative (IA), Montenegrin Media Institute (MMI), Juventas, Media Center, Prima, Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (SMCG) and Queer Montenegro – protested against the second illegal election of Boris Raonić as director of the RTCG and invited members of the RTCG Council who participated in that appointment to resign from public functions as they ignored final court decisions and assumed private interests over the public interest.
The announcement was delivered to all media, including the RTCG. While during the day other electronic media, including TV broadcasters, published a statement from 18 NGOs, RTCG portal and TVCG ignored this information.
In accordance with the prescribed procedure, the Ombudsperson submitted the complaint to the editorial team of the RTCG, which responded as follows: “The decision not to publish the press release of 18 NGOs is the result of the editor’s free judgment. At that moment, there was much more important information than this. This assessment is correct as indicated by the fact that 5.163 NGOs are registered in Montenegro. A large amount of information is published in Dnevnik (News), so a precedent would be set if we adopt the recommendation that every statement written by NGO groups must be published. Also, it is clear that our intention was not to hide anything if it is known that we published a Media Center announcement on the same topic, which was directly to the detriment of the Public Service and the RTCG Council”. The Editor-In-Chief of Dnevnik (News) is Bojan Terzić.
In relation to the editor’s response, the Ombudsperson “agrees that it is a matter of editorial freedom and judgment to determine what and in what way will be broadcast in news broadcasts”, but nevertheless “announcements concerning the work of RTCG, which are signed by a certain number of NGOs, should be carefully consider”. Hence, in her conclusion, she proposed to the RTCG Council to accept the complaint.
We expect the RTCG Council to order appropriate measures to the RTCG management, which will be obliged to act on them. Joint announcement of 18 very active and influential NGOs, whose individual announcements are regularly published by the media, including RTCG, represent the news that the public service cannot ignore, especially when it comes to criticism of its administrative bodies.
This is already the second HRA’s complaint that the RTCG Ombudsman accepts in the last three months. The first one referred to the decision of the Dnevnik (News) editorial board, that for the piece on the decision of the European Court for Human Rights in the case of the Deportation of Refugees, do not engage either the petitioners of assumptions on which the decision was made, or the HRA representatives, as interlocutors, whose director represented the victims of Deportation in that procedure. The editorial board of Dnevnik (News) instead, decided that the only interlocutors would be from the Civic Alliance, an organization whose former director is the current director general of the RTCG, Boris Raonić, and the state agent of Montenegro in front of the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, Valentina Pavličić.
Human Rights Action (HRA)
Spectra Association
Centre for Civic Education (CCE)
Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI)
Women’s Rights Center (WRC)
Centre for Civil Liberties (CEGAS)
Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM)
Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CINCG)
Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (CRNVO)
Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro (DPNCG)
European Association for Law and Finance (EALF)
Institute Alternative (IA)
Montenegrin Media Institute (MMI)
Juventas
Media Center
Prima
Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (SMCG)
Queer Montenegro