The current manner of managing and editorially guiding the public service contributes to deepening social divisions, relativising historical facts and undermining the anti-fascist legacy, as a result of which citizens, employees of RTCG, and the public’s right to objective, responsible and professional information all suffer harm. To change this, it is essential to change the attitude of politicians towards the public service, as well as for the current Director General to resign so that this institution, without the burden carried by the controversies surrounding his appointment, may continue to develop. This was the central message from the panel “How to Strengthen the Independence of RTCG?” at the conference “Who Has Power over RTCG and to Whom Should It Belong?”, organised by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) within the project “Media for Democracy: Strengthening the Independence of RTCG for the Future of Montenegro”, supported by the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Janko Ljumović, member of the Council of Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), emphasised that professionals with experience and careers are increasingly exposed to various pressures, generating almost „panic-like“ situations.
“In RTCG, there is almost no internal dialogue, and contentious issues are increasingly transferred into the public sphere. The responses of those who should react are often designed to create a false image of perfection. An example is the recent dismissal of an editor who then received a regional award for her work. This clearly shows the real state of the institution,” Ljumović said.
He stressed that the key problem in reporting, as RTCG itself notes, is the absence of a strategy for environmental protection, social responsibility and management. “The working environment and organisational culture directly shape the quality of reporting. How can such a culture result in quality content and allow brutal treatment of employees?” Ljumović asked.
He reminded that RTCG relies on people, professionals and professional standards, which enable employees to express their full potential. “Prompt reactions in some cases, and neglect in others, create an environment in which standards are violated, and dialogue and creative debate within the management are absent. A journalist is free, but has an editor, a director and a Council, and all these filters, if they are not free, limit the rights of authors through a matrix of influences – ideological, political or church-related. One law cannot regulate everything. The organisational structure and management mechanisms that belong to past times, with authorities and office-holders who behave in a domineering manner towards employees, significantly shape interpersonal relations and the quality of work in RTCG,”Ljumović said, adding that the future strengthening of the public service will depend on the personality of the Director General and his ability and credibility to resist political and related pressures.
Marijana Camović-Veličković, also amember of the RTCG Council, assessed that the state’s attitude towards the citizens of Montenegro is currently deeply unjust, highlighting the example of the public service and unlawful decisions. “The public service is an institution that has been taken away from the citizens, primarily through unlawful decisions on the appointment of the Director General,” she explained.
She also noted that the history of the public service in Montenegro has never been particularly successful, but that the current period is especially problematic. According to her, it represents a “dark” moment, because the position of the Director General is unlawful. “Previous Directors General, whatever they were like, were at least lawfully elected. This time that is not the case. The current Director General has held the position for five years without a lawful mandate, yet there are those who look favourably upon this and even applaud him,” she said.
Speaking about the scope of (ir)responsibility, she reminded that RTCG manages an extremely large budget provided by the state. “The RTCG budget is larger than the budgets of even 16 Montenegrin municipalities, and it has been managed unlawfully for almost five years. In such a balance of power everyone suffers—citizens suffer, employees of RTCG suffer, and objective public information suffers,” Camović-Veličković said, illustrating this with examples of negative influences and abuses.
When asked what she sees as the path to strengthening RTCG, she was clear that it must be a change in the attitude of Parliament towards the selection of Council members, meaning that this selection must be without party interference, with the first test coming in spring when new members are to be selected.
Sabrija Vulić, a journalist of RTCG with decades of experience, pointed out that the current atmosphere in the public service is seriously damaged. “Interpersonal relations are disturbed, and fear prevails among employees, as any reaction, even the most benign, particularly towards the Director, may result in a change of workplace. Labour law is often not respected, and experienced staff are assigned to positions that do not match their qualifications.Requirements for employment are lowered when age is a criterion, whilst unqualified persons are appointed to key positions through very sophisticated processes,” Vulić said.
He also referred to specific examples of pressure and unjustified dismissals. “Two days ago RTCG received an international award for a documentary programme, and five days ago the editor was dismissed because she did not follow an order. This is just one of many examples where any free opinion in the public service is harshly punished. If you speak up, a process of persuasion, offers and then dismissal follows. Many colleagues have already been dismissed, and in some cases employees have initiated proceedings and received first-instance rulings, meaning the dismissals were not legally valid. Statements of trade union bodies are not available to the public, and anything that does not suit the management is simply concealed,” Vulić said.
Vulić stressed that digital transparency, prescribed by law, practically does not exist. “Travel orders, reports and systematisation should be available on the website, but the last systematisation is from 2017. Since then, hundreds of amendments to job positions and job descriptions have been made, and no one, not even the legal department of RTCG, has a clear overview of them. As a result, colleagues are launching legal proceedings and requesting this information, but cannot obtain it because digital systematisation does not exist,” Vulić concluded.
Olivera Nikolić, Executive Director of the Montenegrin Media Institute (MMI), began by congratulating Mila Vukčević,recipient of the“Srđan Aleksić” award for the documentary film Brother, which deals with the dark events of the 1990s, expressing disappointment that this information did not receive space on the Public Service.
Speaking about the treatment of RTCG employees, she emphasised that she sincerely admires them and strongly supports the activities of the trade union. “At the head of RTCG is a person who does not show responsibility towards the state, because he does not respect the decisions of its institutions. The Director General is not alone in these actions, as he has the support of part of the Council which acts obediently and without critical distance,” she said.
Regarding the editorial policy of RTCG, Nikolić assessed that RTCG increasingly contributes to deepening divisions in an already deeply polarised Montenegrin society. “I increasingly have the impression that RTCG further produces divisions, instead of contributing to their overcoming,” she said.
She also warned about the absence of a clear boundary towards historical revisionism, giving specific examples from the programme. “We have a situation in which a young journalist in the studio asks whether Pavle Đurišić is a war criminal, and then the figure of Pavle Bulatović is introduced into the public discourse without adequate context and without clearly indicating his responsibility during the 1990s,” Nikolić pointed out, adding that this passes without determining professional accountability.
According to her, RTCG reports on these topics without the necessary historical and social framework, thereby relativising facts and responsibility. She also assessed that RTCG’s “perfidious” approach to dismantling the anti-fascist heritage further undermines the role of the Public Service as a space for objective and responsible information. She sees the first step in adequately addressing this situation in “the resignation of the Director General of RTCG, so that this medium may proceed without the burden of his controversial appointments”.
Nikola Đurašević, Programme associate