PODGORICA, 15.02.2020. – The Main Board of SMCG expresses concern about the political pressure on Iva Pavlovic, editor-in-chief of RTV Budva, because we believe any kind of pressure on media and employers is unacceptable, especially political.
The media and journalists must act only in the interest of the public and its right to know. Not in the interest of political or any other particular groups. On the other hand, this is one more confirmation that the practice of appointing staff on a political basis in local public broadcasters is pernicious to the media. It is recalled that through the proposals to amend the Law on Audiovisual Media Services (the current Law on Electronic Media), the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro has tried to influence the way local public broadcasters operate now. First of all, it relates on the way how these media are financed and the attitude of the local governments towards them, and also of the composition of councils which now in most cases do not serve the purpose of their establishment.
SMCG Main Board call the members of Council of RTV Budva to reconsider the situation in which the local public broadcaster was brought in, determine the identity of a Council member who was directly tried to pressure the editor-in-chief of that media, if the published record is credible, and take adequate measures to protect the principle of journalistic/editorial independence when editing the media. The Trade Union, as it has done many times before, stresses that journalists must be allowed to work freely and professionally and condemns any attempt to influence those responsible in the media. We also point out that the situation in Budva, which the public is aware of thanks to the recording of a telephone conversation between the editor-in-chief and a member of the Council, is not the only one of its kind and that similar happens in many local public broadcasters where municipal officials and the ruling majority give themselves the right to brutally interfering in the work of the media which should work in the interest of the public and the local community.