A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has raised concerns about the validity of the documentation submitted by organizations that nominated RTCG Council member Veselin Drljević for another term. They also claim that the entire selection process has been politically driven, with the aim of installing politically favored candidates in the RTCG Council.

In a statement signed by the Media Centre, the Montenegro Media Institute (IMCG), the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG), the Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro, Ul Info, the Bijelo Polje Democratic Centre and NOVA – Centre for Feminist Culture, the organizations state that information on the activities carried out and financial reports of most of the organizations that nominated Drljević is not publicly available.

“We remind the public that the procedure for appointing four new RTCG Council members was delayed by 45 days. There was an obvious intention to race against time, given that the mandates of four current Council members expire on 11 June. During yesterday’s session, this very deadline was used as an argument to prevent interested opposition MPs from conducting a detailed review of the documentation submitted by all candidates,” the statement says.

The signatories add that the majority in the Administrative Committee demonstrated that the process has been significantly politicized.

According to them, this is evident from information indicating that the nomination documents for certain candidates, including Drljević, do not specify the category of authorized nominators under which the candidacy was submitted, namely whether the nomination came from organizations working in the field of human rights or in the field of media.

“This information is not a mere formality; it is a prerequisite for verifying the legality of the entire documentation package, and without it the documentation cannot be considered complete. Only on the basis of this information can it be determined whether the nominating organizations meet the legal requirements, whether their statutes confirm that they operate in the relevant field, and whether they have carried out activities in that field over the past three years with annual funding of at least EUR 2,000,” the statement explains.

The NGO group also argues that the majority in the Administrative Committee applied the criteria inconsistently, ignoring the fact that the nomination documents for Drljević and several other candidates do not indicate which governing body of the NGO adopted the decision to nominate them.

The statement recalls that the same Administrative Committee, only a few months ago, annulled the call for applications for members of the Council of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services precisely because the documentation submitted by candidates Dragoljub Vuković and Niko Martinović did not specify which body of the nominating organization had adopted the nomination decision.

“Had the majority in the Administrative Committee applied the same standard in this procedure, the only candidates with complete documentation would have been Vladan Mićunović and Olivera Nikolić,” the statement notes.

The signatories further point out that, although the law does not require public hearings for RTCG Council candidates, the Administrative Committee has decided to organize such a procedure on 9 June, explaining that it wishes to increase the transparency of the process.

They called on the Committee’s Chair and members to apply that principle consistently and allow access to the complete documentation of all candidates during the same session, both to the candidates themselves and to interested MPs.

“Only in this way can serious doubts be dispelled that the process is being politically managed with the aim of installing politically suitable so-called NGO representatives in the RTCG Council,” they added.

The statement also notes that the Media Centre submitted a request to the Parliament of Montenegro on 18 May, seeking complete documentation from all organizations that nominated candidates for the RTCG Council.

As of today, they say, Parliament has not responded to the request.

“If a thorough and independent review of the documentation is not allowed before the procedure is concluded, it will be difficult to avoid the conclusion that Parliament’s administrative service applied the rules selectively and acted in favor of candidates close to parties forming the parliamentary majority,” the NGO group concluded.