WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
Choose language:
AUTHOR: M.J.
The media center submitted a complaint to the Ombudsperson RTCG and the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services regarding the disputed hidden political advertising (advertising) broadcast on TVCG on June 22. In Dnevnik 2, which is broadcast on the first and second channels, an extensive report of four minutes was published from the meeting of the Movement Europe Now, at which the committee of this parliamentary party for Podgorica was founded.
- In the report, parts of the speech of the president of that party, Milojko Spajić, who currently serves as the Prime Minister of Montenegro, the president of the newly formed party committee, Saša Mujović, who is the current minister of energy and mining, and the party leader and current mayor of Podgorica, Olivera Injac, were published. According to the Media Center's opinion, this type of reporting from the party meeting represents a deviation from the Program Production Plan of RTCG for 2024 and a violation of the Rulebook on Program Principles and Professional Standards of RTCG - said Media Center Director Goran Đurović.
The deviation, he says, is reflected in the fact that such reporting from party gatherings cannot be subsumed under professional and balanced reporting, as announced in the promised part of the Program and Production Plan related to TVCG.
- Reporting of this type, as we stated in one of the earlier objections, does not fit into one of the goals stated in the Rulebook on program principles and professional standards of the RTCG, which reads: "timely, comprehensive, objective, balanced and credible processing of events in Montenegro, region and beyond, supporting a fair and constructive dialogue at the local, regional and national level". In the aforementioned RTCG Rulebook, it is also said that based on Article 51 of the Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament, "political propaganda is not allowed in RTCG programs, except during the pre-election campaign" - states Đurović.
Reporting from the founding party meeting, even if it was one of the ruling parties, does not belong, Đurović underlines, to objective and balanced reporting.
- Already in providing space for party propaganda at a time when there are no pre-election campaigns. According to Article 67 of the Law on Audiovisual Media Services, advertising means the broadcasting of any form of notification by a certain legal or natural person for a certain fee or for self-promotion, which aims to present and draw attention to a specific product or service of that legal or natural person..." . Article 68 of the same law stipulates, "disguised and fraudulent commercial audiovisual communications are prohibited". Article 82 of the law on AVM services stipulates in paragraph 1 and 3: "Political advertising is advertising, with or without financial compensation, which recommends the activities, ideas or positions of the applicant of the confirmed electoral list or candidate during the election or referendum campaign, in accordance with the special Unless otherwise prescribed, the provisions of this law relating to advertising shall be applied to political advertising - added the director of the Media Center.
The content in question belongs to covert commercial audiovisual communications and represents covert advertising (advertising) of a political subject.
- We remind you that the Law on AVM Services stipulates that a fine in the amount of EUR 500 to EUR 20,000 will be imposed on a legal entity for violation of Article 68 of the Law. We remind the public that following the complaint of the Media Center, TVCG was already issued a warning by the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services on March 29 this year because it broadcast a report from the Congress of the New Serbian Democracy on the Parliamentary channel - pointed out Đurović.
He added that the Agency treated the multi-minute broadcast of speeches by NSD officials and their guests as illegal covert advertising.
- The long-established practice of TVCG, from the time when it was managed by DPS, of giving power holders more space for propaganda, continues. Unfortunately, the Government of Montenegro and the Parliament rejected the proposals of 40 NGOs and Media Unions of Montenegro, which we requested that after the adoption of the new Law on RTCG, the procedure for the election of the new Council of RTCG and the general director should be carried out immediately, because the current management structure is also under strong political influence - Đurović concluded.
