Failed competition for RTCG ombudsman

AUTHOR: M.J.
Yesterday, the RTCG council failed to elect a new protector of citizens' rights in the Public Service, because none of the four candidates for ombudsman received the votes of the majority of the members present in the secret ballot.

The employees of that company - Slavica Kruščić-Vasović, Žarko Božović, Danijela Popović (the former ombudsman) and Todor Brajković, journalist of the daily newspaper "Dan" - applied for the competition for the ombudsman of Radio-Television of Montenegro.

Five members of the Council expressed their opinion about the election yesterday. Popović, Božović and Brajković each received one vote, and two ballots were empty, which means that the competition failed, and RTCG will, as decided at the session, announce a new competition with shorter deadlines.

The election of a new ombudsman, due to the expiration of the mandate of Danijela Popović, was followed by controversies because the legal service evaluated the candidacy of Brajković as correct, although it is questionable whether he fulfilled the propositions of the competition.

According to the propositions, in addition to the general conditions, at least ten years of work experience in audio-visual media was required, which was questioned by the Vice-President of the Council, Marijana Camović-Veličković, on the occasion of Brajković's candidacy, because he is a journalist in print media.

Brajković was the only candidate who did not come from the Public Service. He is a sports journalist in the daily newspaper "Dan", but 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 has on several occasions relativized the fact that his colleague worked in the print media, claiming that he does not have a contract to work with the daily newspaper Dan, but with the company "Jumedia mont", which owns, in addition to the daily newspaper, two radio stations and a portal, and that all those who had contracts with that company were obliged to work for each of those media, and that it follows that Brajković has the necessary experience in audio-visual media.

Camović-Veličković also questioned that candidacy yesterday, stating that a detailed search of the "Dana" portal, which, as she said, has existed for the longest three years in a form that has audio-visual content, shows no trace of Brajković doing anything in that sense, except for his texts transferred from the daily newspaper, and that two radio channels are in the possession of "Jumedia monta" music station, but like many times before, she remained alone in that attitude.

She also demanded from Drljević that if there was a vote, due to his friendly relations with Brajković, he would be excluded from the vote, which the latter refused even though he confirmed that he was friends with him and that he was proud of that friendship.

Her request for the vote to be public was also rejected, and Drljević insisted that the secret vote is a "constitutional category", for which he received the support of the majority of Council members present yesterday.

Drljević, Predrag Marsenić, Milica Špajak, Amina Murić and Filip Lazović took part in the secret ballot. Camović-Veličković has not participated in the voting of the Council since June of last year, when Boris Raonic was illegally re-elected to the position of general director of RTCG despite the final verdict.

Ombudswoman Popović, who applied for the competition again, during her term of office issued a large number of opinions on objections to the professional reporting of the Public Service. Her opinions were often the subject of discussions 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 Raonic.

Žarko 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. Part of the RTCG employees also protested because of this discrimination. The ombudsman then issued an opinion in which it was confirmed that Božović can use the iota variant of the Montenegrin language, that is, that there was a violation of equality in rights and before the law.

Slavica Kruščić-Vasović is a long-time RTCG journalist and the president of one of the two trade unions of that house - the Representative Organization of the RTCG trade union.