Good morning! It’s good that the capital’s TV station dismissed the DPS managerial structure. If only it could get rid of the God-breathed journalists so that they can freely and professionally apologize to… Andrija Mandic.
Andrija Mandic, We’re Sorry
“The Podgorica TV and radio station apologized for the statement of lawyer Boris Marinovic, who was a guest yesterday in a news TV show and told that the Parliament Speaker, Andrija Mandic, violated the Criminal Code of Montenegro by displaying the tricolor in the legislative chamber, i.e. that he committed a criminal offence for which he should be punished.”
It was the news on the Gradska portal yesterday, along with the title ‘RTV Podgorica wishes to apologize to Mandic’. During all these years of my engagement in the Montenegrin media, I’ve never seen something similar. I can only imagine the reactions of the public if some of the former regime media apologized to Djukanovic or the DPS.
Gradska made an apology for something their interlocutor said. Instead of acting in line with the Media Law and publishing a response and statement of Mandic, they apologize to him. And act as if his interpretation of the law is better than the lawyer’s. I’m not sure whether you can understand this lever of toadyism. Djuro Radosavovic for sure should worry about his throne, being the leader of the Montenegrin poltroonish journalism.
To be frank, I didn’t expect a lot from new management after I saw that they closed the sessions of the new TV Council so that the public can’t watch.
With all the hysteria against Gradska TV, previously run by Tamara Nikcevic, I thought that the new management would make at least a little effort to show how they would fight against what they objected in terms of its editorial policy. However, not only that they didn’t create a discontinuity in relation to some bad editing practices, but did what no one in the former Gradska TV team would have done.
We can accuse Tamara of rarely bringing dissidents to her shows, of being biased, that she sometimes exaggerated, but Tamara did not hesitate to attack the DPS. And she’s still doing it. Fiercely. And it never occurred to her to apologize to the powerful people for what she said or done. Tamara is not a coward.
As for this bias and exaggeration, who doesn’t do it on the Montenegrin political stage? Can you tell that Vijesti are moderate and impartial? The public broadcaster RTCG? The only question is our preferences, that is, what bias bothers us.
Let’s get back to the specific topic of this article. Why is Gradska TV apologizing? Because they’re afraid of Andrija Mandic. Everyone in the ruling coalition at the state level and in the local ruling coalitions is afraid of Andrija Mandic. They are certainly not afraid of Milan Knezevic. Milan Knezevic and his DNP were excluded from the new coalition, but we will talk about it in tomorrow’s column.
If you’re not in good relations with Andrija Mandic or if he doesn’t find you likeable, you can forget about being appointed in any state position.
And to ask you dear readers, after all this, to give an honest answer to yourselves – to whatever political party you belong – do you think that this type of television will be allowed to monitor and control the work of local administration that finances it? Do you think there has really been a change? Or we only replaced the participants of the drama, not to say the pawns?
Nikola Markovic from RTNK is a man with whom I differ politically, but whose wisdom and democratic capacities I admire. He recognized an excellent opportunity to preserve the critical potential of the local public TV station through the example of Gradska TV. There is no better media watchdog than a political opponent. Smart people in power would leave the critic to protect them from challenges and temptations of power. But then, that would not be Montenegro, which in everything, including the development of media freedom, has to take two steps backwards in order to take one forward.
That’s all for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM news team)
