PODGORICA, August 5, 2021 – The Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society, and Media recently re-invited media owners to join the process of registration, which is proscribed by the Law on Media adopted in July last year.
Article 9, paragraph 1 of the Law on Media stipulates the obligation of the Ministry to keep Media Records.
If the intention of the legislator is realized, Montenegro could, for the first time, get a single database of all media operating in the country.
Until now, those records were only partial, because the Agency for Electronic Media kept a database on online and electronic media, while the recording of printed publications was left to the ministry in charge of the media, and those data were never publicly available.
The intention of the Law is that every person has the right to access the Register.
“According to the guarantees of protection of media pluralism, the goal of the Media Record is to transparently present basic information about the media in one place. The application for registration in the Register is submitted by the founder or an authorized person”, the Ministry states in a repeated invitation, which was sent for the first time in March.
Law on Media doesn’t predict penalties if media do not register.