RTCG – Public or party service

SOURCE: ANTENA M- AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS

Explaining their positions that the public service has been “hijacked”, that it is in “institutional agony” and that it is “Raonić and Drljević’s cooperative”, guests of the new PROUDCAST of the Center for Civic Education (CCE) Marijana Camović Večković, Vice President of the Media Union of Montenegro and member of the RTCG Council, and Srđan Čović, from the Technical Leadership of RTCG, gave the genesis of the events that led to the work of the RTCG Council being under the scrutiny of judicial authorities and the consequences that this entails, the CCE announced.

Camović-Velicković, who is also a witness in the proceedings before the Basic Court in Podgorica against the president and four members of the RTCG Council, assessed that this is a precedent for a member of the RTCG Council to be tried, with the additional precedent that they continue to perform their functions, recalling that the proceedings came about because five of them illegally re-elected Boris Raonić as the general director in 2023.

“Instead of annulling the decision from August 2021, for which a final judgment was issued that the election was illegal, they re-elected him… These members of the Council do not get involved in what they vote on, they fulfill their task, do what is required of them and at any cost - even at the cost of their freedom, because they are threatened with a prison sentence,” stated Camović-Velicković.

She believes that the obvious intention is to prolong the court process and that this plays into Raonić's hands.

“It is in his interest that the mandate of these members of the Council lasts as long as possible, as long as they serve him, and that no verdict is reached during that time,” she explained, pointing out that the mandate of some of these Council members expires this year, and that of others in June of next year. She also expressed surprise at the judge’s unpreparedness for the great public interest in this case, the first hearing of which was postponed because there was no free courtroom of an appropriate size. When asked what verdict she expects, Camović Večković is decisive: “The verdict cannot be anything other than a condemnation.”

Srđan Čović, who has been professionally engaged in RTCG for decades, and was also a candidate for director general, believes that “there is revanchism on the scene in RTCG and that people who have no capacity, knowledge, or morals are running the company, harassing colleagues and filing lawsuits against their employees.”

Čović recalled that the current RTCG Council elected Raonić when it had before it four decisions of the Basic Court, then a decision of the Higher Court confirming Raonić's conflict of interest, as well as the confirmation of the Supreme Court and the opinion of the ASK that there was an obvious conflict of interest in the election of Raonić. He also noted that the then ASK leadership announced that it would also address the Administrative Board, which is responsible for the election of Council members, but also to alert the state prosecutor.

"The situation of ignoring court decisions like this is unprecedented. It is also absurd that RTCG employees pay lawyers who do not defend the interests of RTCG, but Raonić and members of the Council loyal to him," claims Čović.

He also recalled that all candidates for the position of RTCG's general director, in the last competition, addressed the public with a joint letter, warning that if Raonić performed his duties illegally, he could not have gained work experience, and thus not fulfilled the conditions required by the competition. “The biggest absurdity is that RTCG lawyers defended Raonić’s election by referring to court decisions in which they lost,” he added.

When asked about the atmosphere at RTCG, Čović said that professionals at the public service are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the process, while some people fear for their positions, and some expect to get something in the current distribution of apartments, ignoring the fact that in that case all the acts would be illegal.

“A budget of EUR 24 million (of which EUR 20.8 million is allocated by the citizens of Montenegro) can keep RTCG in a good position. But, unfortunately, there has never been more administration at RTCG, all managers have deputies and advisors and they are given greater importance than the directors of Radio and Television,” Čović said.

Commenting on financial management, Marijana Camović-Veličković assessed that EUR 24 million is a “giddy” sum and that at least 16 Montenegrin municipalities have a smaller budget than the RTCG budget.

"Every year the budget is getting bigger, every year there is money left over, because it is impossible to spend money meaningfully for something that does not start from scratch every year, and they never return anything to the budget," she said, emphasizing that what happens to the unspent and unreturned money should be examined. "The behavior of the Ministry of Finance is indicative. For example, in 2021, when the first report of the State Audit Institution (DRI) on the operations of RTCG was released, the Ministry of Finance did not give a single answer to the DRI. If it had given answers, that report would have been much different," said Camović-Veličković. She pointed out that the financial plan only shows the figures, but no explanation of why they are so high, citing the example that EUR 55,000 was planned for legal services this year, and EUR 30,000 a year ago. "We do not see why that figure is almost twice as high, which that's the scope of work, how lawyers are chosen and why, and disputes are only lost. At least in three years we know that these huge millions are managed by a man who was illegally elected...", says Camović Velicković and adds that equipment is being purchased uncontrollably.

"The public service has been captured by political parties that Boris Raonić serves," says Camović Velicković and cites examples of unprofessionalism, unverified information and censorship, such as the recently "withdrawn" statement of the European Commission spokesperson because it did not correspond to the political parties that Raonić serves.

In his review of censorship and selective selection of information, Srđan Čović pointed to the RTCG's almost campaign against the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, when he warned that the RTCG Law should not be tailored to one person. He considered the government's explanation at the time that the criteria for the election of the general director were being lowered in order to achieve greater competition to be meaningless.

"Interestingly, on September 1st there were eight candidates with about 300 years of experience in RTCG, and the members of the Council re-elected Raonić. They received a new criminal complaint that has not yet been processed. All eight candidates filed a lawsuit against an organized crime group, so this trial from March 7th will have its continuation," Čović estimates.

When asked whether RTCG can become a mirror of our society, and not a diary of one government, Čović said that the public service RTCG had its ups and downs in the late 90s, then after 2006 it entered a kind of lethargy and lowered criteria, only to regain trust during the time of Andrijana Kadija and Vladan Mićunović, and now RTCG creates most of its shows, of various genres, according to the needs of politicians. "I do not think that RTCG should be a testing ground for politicians," Čović is clear. He believes that the system cannot be improved if the head of RTCG is a man who was illegally elected, and the head of the Council is a doctor who, it will be determined, copied 36 pages of his doctorate. "It is difficult to defend with arguments why a public service is needed, because in most European countries they are already considered parasites of society. I think that a public service should exist, but more in the sphere of what is not in the field of interest of commercial televisions - there should be less news programming, and as many educational, cultural, scientific and children's programs as possible," concluded Camović-Veličković.