Media Centre and the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) call on the members of the RTCG Council to demonstrate through their decisions whether, like the previous Council, they will be reduced to puppets of the illegally appointed RTCG Director General Boris Raonić, or whether they will protect the integrity of the Council, the legality of its work and their own accountability.
Namely, on 24 August, the so-called Professional Service of the RTCG Council unlawfully submitted an unsigned document to the Administrative Committee, along with a decision of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APC) concerning the appointment of RTCG Council member Janko Ljumović. According to the APC, Ljumović violated the Law on the National Public Broadcaster – Public Media Service of Montenegro at the time of his appointment by allegedly providing inaccurate information about his status concerning restrictions on holding the public office of an RTCG Council member.
Ljumović challenged the APC decision before the Administrative Court, and those proceedings are ongoing. However, in its letter to the Administrative Committee, the Professional Service of the RTCG Council already states that Ljumović violated the law, even though the court proceedings have not yet been concluded. An even more serious question is who authorised the Professional Service to act before Parliament in a matter on which the RTCG Council itself had not previously taken a decision.
The provisions of the Law on Audiovisual Media Services apply mutatis mutandis to the procedure for dismissing a member of the RTCG Council. Article 162 of that Law stipulates that the procedure for dismissing a member of the Agency Council is initiated by the Council itself, by submitting a reasoned proposal to Parliament. This means that it is the RTCG Council that must consider the matter, take a decision and, if it determines that the relevant conditions have been met, submit a reasoned proposal to Parliament. The Professional Service cannot assume the powers of the Council or prejudge its decision.
This raises serious suspicion that the Professional Service of the RTCG Council, without a decision by or the knowledge of the Council, forwarded the APC documentation to the Administrative Committee in order to accelerate the dismissal of Janko Ljumović outside the procedure prescribed by law. The Council must establish who instructed such action, on the basis of what authority, and for what purpose.
The RTCG Council is obliged to consider the APC decision concerning Ljumović in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law. No one has the right to assume the Council’s powers before the Council itself has acted, or to exercise them in its place. The Professional Service exists to serve the Council and implement its decisions, not to independently make decisions, shape institutional policy or act in the interests of the Director General.
If the members of the RTCG Council are not puppets of the illegally appointed Director General Boris Raonić and the ruling political parties, they should immediately adopt a decision instructing the Director General to initiate disciplinary proceedings and terminate the employment of the responsible staff within the Professional Service of the RTCG Council for disregarding the Council itself and violating the procedure prescribed by law. If the RTCG Director General fails to implement the decision and conclusion of the RTCG Council, this becomes grounds for the dismissal of the Director General himself.
We recall that the responsibility attached to membership of the RTCG Council is not abstract. Four members of the previous Council were convicted in final judgments and given seven-month suspended prison sentences for abuse of office. This should serve as a sufficiently serious warning to every current member of the Council that the position entails personal responsibility for the legality of decisions and actions.
We also expect the competent prosecution service to finally move forward with the proceedings concerning the criminal complaint for incitement to commit a criminal offence, filed in June 2023 against Boris Raonić, Head of the RTCG Legal Service Želimir Mićović, and the then RTCG lawyer Zorica Đukanović.
The new RTCG Council now has an opportunity to demonstrate that it is not a continuation of the old model of governance. If it remains silent in the face of the arbitrary usurpation of its powers and allows others to decide on its behalf, then the question is no longer whether the Council is a puppet – but merely who is pulling the strings.
Goran Đurović, Media Centre
Daliborka Uljarević, Centre for Civic Education (CCE)