CEDEM: Half of Montenegrin citizens do not trust the media, only one in five believes that they work in the public interest

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Source/Author: PR Centar
Source/Photo: PR Centar

PODGORICA, 11.02.2021. – Almost 60 percent of citizens think that media freedoms in Montenegro are at a low or very low level, while half of them think that the position of journalists is more or less bad.

This was announced at the press conference “Presentation of the results of research on media and media freedoms”, organized by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) within the project “Strengthening the capacity of local media to report on human and minority rights”, supported by USA embassy in Podgorica.

The author of the research and the main methodologist of CEDEM, Milos Besic, also stated that the number of citizens who believe that journalists are mostly protected or unprotected is equal.

The survey showed that over 45 percent of citizens believe that the state should adopt special measures to further protect journalists, while one in three believes that there is no need for that.

“When asked how efficient the state is in prosecuting and punishing those who threaten and attack journalists, about 47 percent of citizens negatively assess the state’s efficiency in this regard, while twice as many citizens think that the state is more or less efficient in prosecuting and punishing those who endanger journalists “, stated Besic.

When asked what is the reason for the inefficiency of the state in terms of protection of journalists, as he said, 50 percent of them said they did not know the reason, corruption and organized crime were chosen by 15.4 percent of citizens, inefficiency and selectivity of the judicial system by 11.3 percent , lack of political will 10.7 percent.

The data, he said, show that citizens have high expectations of the new government when it comes to protecting journalists and media freedom.

“They think that the new government will treat the media and journalists better. 30 percent of citizens say that it will be significantly more efficient, 17 percent that they will be equally efficient, and 15.5 percent – less efficient,” Besic stated.

When it comes to investigative journalism, the most dominant view is that investigative journalism is generally good (39.5 percent), but that a small number of journalists deal with it in the right way.

Answering the question of which political structure the media supports, the least citizens cannot assess, while most of them think that the media are divided on that issue.

“A similar percentage of citizens believe that the media work for the interests of the owners (39.6) on the one hand, as those who work for the interests of politicians (39.7 percent), on the other. Every fifth citizen of Montenegro believes that the media mostly work for the interests of citizens,” said Besic.

The research showed that citizens generally believe that the media are not independent in relation to various actors.

“On a scale from 0 to 1, TV Vijesti is estimated as the most independent media with almost 0.33, followed by the newspaper Vijesti 0.29 and the portal Vijesti 0.28. It is followed by RTCG 0.28, Dan 0.26, CDM 0.25, Analitika 0.23, FOS 0.22 “, said Bešić.

According to the citizens, as he said, the government at the state level is the most responsible and about 30 percent of citizens have identified that actor as a key violator of media rights and freedoms, about 15 percent of them believe that media owners do it, and only one in ten attributes it to journalists.

“Over 40 percent of citizens believe that the public service has better business conditions than private ones, as opposed to 26 percent of citizens who say that private media have better business conditions. More than half of  citizens believe that the degree of media freedom is more present in the private than in the public media,” Besic said.

When asked who should contribute the most when it comes to the promotion of media freedoms, the research showed that comparatively, the greatest contribution is expected from journalists, the state, the media and media owners and professional associations.

The research showed that every second citizen of Montenegro does not trust the media, that television is still the most dominant medium, the most visited social network is Facebook, and citizens have high expectations of the new government when it comes to protecting journalists and media freedom.

He pointed out that television is still the most dominant media and that over 70% of citizens watch television every day.

“The second most frequently watched are social networks, which are used daily by 45.3 percent of citizens. Social networks and internet portals are gaining in importance from year to year. Behind that are two traditional media. 21.3 percent listen to the radio every day, and only 8.4 percent of the citizens read the newspapers every day,” Besic stated.

The Vijesti portal is monitored daily by every fourth citizen of Montenegro (24.3), and the second and third in terms of frequency of monitoring are CDM (16.2) and RTCG (15.2).

“Citizens have the most trust in the Vijesti portal (32.8) in which every third citizen has a higher or lower level of trust. Then follows RTCG (21.5), and then CDM (18.3) “, stated Besic.

Any newspaper is followed daily and regularly by a very small number of citizens, but the most read is Dan, which is read regularly or daily by 7.5 percent of citizens, followed by Vijesti with 6.2 and Pobjeda with 4.2 percent.

“When it comes to trust, trust is expressed in the same order, with the differences being proportionally small. 23 percent of citizens express confidence in Dan, 21 percent of Vijesti and 18 percent in Pobjeda” said Besic.

When it comes to televisions, the most watched are Vijesti, which in the category is very often watched by over 52 percent of citizens, followed by RTCG 1 with 40.5 percent, TV Prva 30.6 percent, Nova M 23.6 percent.

“When it comes to trust in information on TV stations, the first are, again, Vijesti with 59.2 percent of citizens, followed by RTCG1 (51.4), RTCG 2 (46.1), and PRVA (43.8) and NOVA M (38). So, the more often people watch a media, the more they trust it, or people watch a media because they trust it”, explained Besic.

The most visited social network, he said, is Facebook, which is followed daily by 42.8 percent of citizens, followed by Youtube 30.8, Instagram 23.3 percent. He added that the highest level of trust is in Facebook, which is trusted by 35.9 percent of citizens, and trust in Youtube is 34.7 percent.

When asked if they heard about fake news, 45 percent of respondents answered that they heard, 26.9 percent of citizens heard about fake news, but they are not sure what that means, and 28.3 percent of citizens do not know what fake news is.

Just over a quarter of citizens are more or less able to recognize fake news, and it is possible to manipulate fake news with about a quarter of citizens.

“When they recognize fake news, most citizens simply ignore it, but ignoring it does not stop the spread of fake news. A very small number of citizens share them and inform others that this is fake news or report to the administrators that they have seen it”,said Besic.

The program manager, Marko Pejovic, said that the research was conducted from December 10 to 21, 2020, and 999 respondents participated in the research.