Long-time journalist, editor, and media analyst Draguljub Duško Vuković and academic Niko Martinović have been nominated for members of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services (AMU), according to “Vijesti”.
According to information from the newspaper, Vuković was nominated by 14 non-governmental organizations from the media field, while Martinović was nominated by the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU).
According to the Law on Audiovisual Media Services, the AMU Council has five members, including representatives from universities, organizations in the fields of media and human rights, CANU, and the Bar Association.
The Council currently has a president and two members. The president is university representative Branko Bošković, and the members are Edin Koljenović, representing NGOs working on human rights and freedoms, and Andrijana Nikolić, representing the interests of commercial broadcasters’ associations. Their mandates will expire in the middle of next year.
According to the Law, the AMU Council appoints and dismisses the director, as well as adopts the Agency’s acts and submits reports to the European Commission. It is also responsible for approving the radio frequency distribution plans made by the regulatory body for electronic communications and making decisions regarding the awarding of broadcasting rights.
At the beginning of the year, the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić, withdrew the call for nominations for the position of Council member from the NGO sector in the media field due to a “technical error.” In the reissued call at the end of January, only one change was made – the legal point that generally defines that the proposers for the member of the council for human rights and freedoms can be non-governmental organizations working in this field was not mentioned.
The Media Center then stated that Mandić withdrew the call because the ruling parties realized that the “majority candidate” would not pass.
A group of NGOs, including the Media Union, then wrote to the Head of the European Union Delegation in Montenegro, Johan Satler, regarding the obstruction of the implementation of the Law on Audiovisual Media Services in the Montenegrin Parliament and the blockade of the AMU’s work.