About the application for the session of the RTCG Council on Monday

POBJEDA

RTCG ombudsman Danijela Popović's mandate expires on June 9, and Slavica Kruščić-Vasović, Žarko Božović and Todor Brajković also applied for the competition, which was announced on April 15 and closed on May 16.
Ombudsman Popović is ending her three-year mandate, during which she issued a large number of opinions on objections to the professional reporting of the Public Service. Her opinions were often the subject of discussion at the sessions of the RTCG Council, especially when they were not in accordance with the opinion of the management and members who are close to the general director Boris Raonic.
A critical attitudeOne of the most vivid examples was when she accepted the remarks of the Media Center that the editorial board of RTCG hid from its audience the information that Dunja Mijatović, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, after her stay in Montenegro, expressed critical opinions about RTCG in the press release of SE. At the session of the RTCG Council on April 16, Popović said that the editors forwarded her links that did not deal with the statement issued by Mijatović after her visit to Montenegro.
After her stay in Montenegro, Mijatović issued a statement in which she pointed out that "the non-implementation of the decisions of domestic courts on the appointment of the RTCG director raises questions regarding the respect for the rule of law, which is also an issue that needs to be resolved urgently".
The President of the RTCG Council, Veselin Drljević, said that it was a little unusual that none of the electronic Montenegrin media had "that segment" and that he was amazed. Drljević told the ombudsman that it was good that she found it, but also that the criticism was "kind of hidden" and explained that "at the end of a report by the European Commission, by Mrs. Mijatović" so no one noticed.
Popović emphasized again that there were other media that conveyed that information and that the editorial staff could have been informed. The editors defended themselves by claiming that they did not receive an email after the visit.
Sports connectionCandidate Todor Brajković is the only one who does not come from the Public Service. He is a sports journalist in the daily newspaper Dan. Brajković is also the general secretary of the Association of Sports Journalists of Montenegro, whose president is Veselin Drljević, who is also the president of the RTCG Council. Drljević, as the president of the Council, at the suggestion of Raonic, the salary is double that of the other members.
The President of the RTCG Council reported that he receives a fixed monthly compensation of 1,395 euros, and the other members receive compensation in the amount of the average salary in the Public Service, which last year was from 664 to 830 euros.
DiscriminationŽarko Božović, another candidate for RTCG ombudsman, came into the public eye at the beginning of last year when he was banned from using the constitutionally guaranteed variant of the Montenegrin language on Radio Montenegro. Božović told the media that the then editor of the First Program of Radio Montenegro, Milutin Tomašević, clearly told him that in the future, due to the use of the Iotized version of the Montenegrin language, he would not work in news shows, because the management's position is that the language on the Public Service should be standardized. On that occasion, Tomašević told me that in the future I will only do what comes from the excuse of work, which is engagement within the Program for Minorities - editorial in the languages of less numerous peoples.
Part of the RTCG employees also protested because of this discrimination. The Ombudsperson also issued an opinion in which it was confirmed that Božović can use the Ioted variant of the Montenegrin language, that is, that there was a violation of equality in rights and before the law. The Ombudsperson recommended that RTCG continue to engage Božović in the information program of Montenegro.
The union angleSlavica Kruščić-Vasović is a long-time RTCG journalist, but also the president of one of the two trade unions of that house - the Representative Organization of the RTCG trade union. Together with Jadranka Drobnjak, the president of the other union, she managed to secure a salary increase for RTCG employees after four months of negotiations. They described the deals with Raonic as exhausting, and at one point they even wrote a letter to the government, claiming that the general manager was misleading them.
According to the proposals of the competition, a person who has at least the VII-I level of educational qualification, at least ten years of work experience in audio-visual media, citizenship of Montenegro and residence in Montenegro can be appointed as RTCG ombudsman for three years.
Those appointed by the President, the Assembly or the Government, officials of political parties, persons who are owners of shares, shareholders, members of management bodies, members of supervisory bodies, employees or persons who are employed on other grounds and have an interest matters cannot be elected legal entities dealing with audio-visual media services and online media, so the membership of such a person in the Council could lead to a conflict of interest.
Discussion on the request for the dismissal of DrljevicThe agenda of the session of the RTCG Council included an item where the request for the dismissal of the president of the RTCG Council, which was submitted by the vice-president Marijana Camović Veličković, will be discussed.
In the explanation of the request, Camović-Veličković points out that Drljević did not call the session on April 23, 2024, when the conditions for it were met, and thus violated Article 14 of the Rules of Procedure of the Council. As Pobjeda previously wrote, Camović-Veličković requested an urgent meeting of the Council on April 22, after the decision of the Basic Court that Boris Raonic was illegally re-elected as general manager in June of last year. This judgment was handed down following the lawsuit of Nikola Marković.
She then asked that at least two more members of the Council support her initiative in order to meet the conditions from Article 14 of the Rules of Procedure of the RTCG, which states: "The meeting of the Council must be convened at the request of at least three members of the Council". It was supported by Council members Predrag Miranović and Predrag Marsenić. She emphasized that the President of the Council RTCG Drljević refused to act according to the Rules of Procedure and proposed an informal meeting and asked the members of the Council to declare themselves again in this way, putting pressure on them to change their clearly stated opinion.
- At my all-day insistence, he first said that he would be out of Montenegro for the whole week, when I offered to lead the session as vice-president (in accordance with the Rules of Procedure), he quickly appeared in Montenegro and proposed a meeting. During the day, he stopped responding to my emails - writes the vice-president of the Council.
She requested the scheduling of the session a second time, on May 8, and that request was completely ignored and Drljević never responded to it. At that time, she requested a session due to another judgment of the Basic Court, this time on the lawsuit of Srđan Čović, in which it was also decided that Boris Raonic was illegally re-elected in June of last year.
Marijana Camović-Veličković pointed out in her request that the reasons for scheduling the session were precisely the first-instance verdicts of the Basic Court.