WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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The RTCG Council adopted the Code of Ethics yesterday, the application of which will significantly threaten the freedom of speech of the employees of the Public Service, and through the formation of the Ethics Committee, over which the illegally elected general manager Boris Raonic will have complete control in the current distribution of forces, he will receive a tool for retribution against the unfit.
The ethics committee, to which a report of a violation of the provisions of the Code, which is treated as a serious violation of the work obligation, which most often entails the termination of the employment relationship, can be submitted by the general director himself, in addition to the public, employees and members of the Council, will consist of seven members, and as things stand, Raonic will that body to control at least five of them.
According to the adopted Code, the members of the Ethics Committee consist of - one representative of two representative unions of RTCG, two representatives of the RTCG Council, two representatives of management, as well as one "independent person with experience in providing audiovisual services".
Members from the ranks of trade union representatives are elected on the proposal of the president of the trade union organizations. The members of the RTCG Council are elected on the proposal of the president of that body, Veselin Drljević, while the members of the management are proposed by the general director Raonic, and an independent person is elected through a public call, which is again announced by the RTCG Council.
And sue and judge
According to the document adopted yesterday, the general director, based on the opinion or findings of the Ethics Committee, will initiate the procedure to determine the employee's responsibility for violating the rules and standards established by the Code of Ethics in accordance with the Collective Agreement.
In this way, in theory, after his own report against one of the employees for violating the provisions of the Code, Raonic will, ultimately, after the findings of the Ethics Committee, which will control, lead a procedure that will be treated as a serious violation of work obligations.
If one of the employees dares, given the fact that the report cannot be anonymous, to potentially submit a report to the Ethics Committee for violation of the Code against Raonic, the RTCG Council will be the one to decide whether or not to initiate the determination procedure responsibilities of the general director.
According to the new RTCG Code of Ethics, the presentation of value judgments will, as things stand, be treated as a serious violation of work obligations. Although in Article 15 of the Code, in the part concerning public appearances, which includes advertising on social networks, it is written that employees cannot be prohibited from expressing critical value judgments, it is written that this is allowed if the employee "is able to prove that in spoke the truth in his public appearance, since a value judgment without a factual basis to support it can be exaggerated".
Yesterday at the session, the vice-president of the Council, Marijana Camović-Veličković, questioned this, warning that this approach limits freedom of speech.
If an employee says something that is a critical value judgment, who checks if he was telling the truth? Every public appearance implies a subsequent follow-up inside the house where someone will appreciate whether the "border has been crossed". Almost every status on a social network can be a reason for determining a serious violation of the work obligation, which most often leads to the termination of the employment relationship - she pointed out.
According to her, the freedom of speech and expression is significantly reduced, thereby illegally and unconstitutionally restricting it, and that what is the jurisdiction of the courts, such as determining the truth, the RTCG Code gives the employer the authority to have the employee prove before him that he spoke the truth in a public appearance which, as she said, is not normal.
Less and less freedom
With regard to the formation of the Ethics Committee, she said that it was another deprivation of the competence of the Public Service Council, reminding that the first was in 2021 when it was about making a decision whether Montenegro should, or not, participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Camović-Veličković requested that the provisions on the formation of the Ethics Committee be deleted from the Code and that the responsibilities of the general director be reduced, but her proposal was not passed.
I would like to remind you that all these activities result in disciplinary proceedings and ultimately the dismissal of the employee. I see that employees' freedom of speech is being restricted, and I think that this is illegal in any activity, and when it comes to the activity of the media, it is absolutely forbidden - she said.
Camović-Veličković also pointed out that the illegally elected CEO Raonic is filing criminal charges against the employees today because of something they discussed in closed Viber groups and because of RTCG documents they shared there, which are not secret.
This is what the measures proposed by the Code come down to. This is crossing all possible jurisdictional boundaries employer towards employees and entering a zone that simply does not belong to anyone, because personal freedoms are at stake. Pass this act and apply it, but be prepared to bear the consequences when those dismissals come before the courts. And they will come - she said.
That the intention of the Code is precisely to silence dissenters of the current management was best confirmed by the words of Council member Amina Murić, who was elected to that body as a representative of the NGO Youth Initiative for Human Rights, a partner organization of Boris Raonic's Civic Alliance.
I believe that in relation to all our experience that we had with certain employees, how they behaved in certain public appearances, that they potentially damaged the reputation of RTCG, that this need happened for that reason - said Murić.
The Code was adopted with four votes in favor and one abstention. Council president Drljević, members Murić and Milica Špajak and member Filip Lazović voted for adoption, while Naod Zorić abstained.
