Good morning! For a couple of years now, we have been talking about how Serbian companies have taken over the media scene in Montenegro. What does it look like in practice?
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How has Serbia dominated our media scene?
This is not yesterday’s phenomenon. Montenegro was a media and cultural periphery of the former Yugoslavia, strongly attached to Belgrade. Little hands, little strength. Due to the numbers, Montenegro allegedly cannot be measured in terms of resources and capacities with regional media and cultural centers. But is that really so?
The extreme examples of the countries of the former Soviet Union teach us that numbers are not a prerequisite for a strong domestic media and cultural scene. In one small Estonia, its 1.3 million inhabitants mostly consume Estonian media content, which is significantly different from the countries of Central Asia, which, with its 60 million inhabitants, are still addicted to Russian media products. Therefore, it is not a matter of numbers, but of creativity, work and commitment.
After all, although during socialism we could not boast of TV production, we did film production. The history of Zeta Film and Lovcen Film teaches us that it can be different. Today, we consume Turkish and Serbian film content.
Where are we today?
The number of people who get information from the Internet and social networks is growing, but television is still significantly represented as the primary source of information.
Cable television is now available throughout Montenegro, and the most popular national television channels are RTCG, Vijesti, Adria, Prva, Pink and Nova. So there is one national TV, which people watch out of habit, and whose media personalities have not changed in the last 10-15 years. The editorial policy has changed, but the journalists have not. How serious this media is is evidenced by the fact that the main face of its news programme is Zoran Lekovic.
Vijesti is the most popular media in Montenegro. In terms of resources and number of employees, they are a real information factory. Long-term leadership of free and independent journalism in Montenegro has made the Vijesti brand recognizable. A large number of journalists from almost all media companies grew up in the nursery of Vijesti.
However, excessive focus on profit maximization, as well as the authoritarian leadership culture of Zeljko Ivanovic, took its toll. The best journalists have left this media, which can be felt in the quality of reporting, and especially in the reduced research potential of this media. The columnist section, after the departure of Brano Mandic, was also reduced to a couple of boring and untalented people like Djuro Radosavovic and the propagandist Zeljko Pantelic.
Only Ratka Jovanovic is holding on, who has her own audience. With the takeover by the Serbian-Luxemburg-Dutch United group, the influence of the Belgrade management can be felt significantly, through changing the perspective of reporting, but also by filling the journalist ranks with journalists from Belgrade. So today, for example, we are living the paradox that Belgrade journalists, researchers, analysts and publicists comment on the situation in Montenegro via the most popular media.
As far as entertainment content is concerned, Vijesti TV is starting to broadcast thrash popular culture from Serbia. Like the popular music competition Nikad Nije Kasno (Better Ever Than Never), Nova M does it even more powerfully through Zvezde Granda (Grand Stars) music show and similar shows.
Furthermore, Prva TV, once owned by Greece, is now owned by a man close to Vucic, and in Montenegro it is managed by the founder of the pro-Kremlin newspaper Borba. He hosts a popular political talk-show, and is part of government commissions, and perhaps the closest journalist to Dritan Abazovic.
Adria TV is a project that showed a lot of promise, but with the weakening of DF, it is losing its strength. Low-quality program, poor news programme, makes this project less popular. I wouldn’t spend too much time talking about Pink today.
This change did not come with 30 August. Most of these media were brought to Montenegro by DPS, when they had the support of Minut, Dva news programme, Prva and Nova. The same is happening with many local projects financed from the budget. The RTCG example shows that the journalistic class easily adapts to new conditions from the state budget. It will be the same with Gradska TV, it has been happening with Budva TV for a long time.
Private media projects of journalism close to the former authorities also did not give any great results. Surveys show that everywhere except on the portal market, the viewership share of such media is very small, despite the enormous funds invested in them.
Something is wrong in the media scene. The fact is that the marketing budget in Montenegro is very small and that media projects can hardly be self-sustaining if reduced to Montenegro. Maybe we should create a Montenegrin media that would be an informative authority in the region? Can we be the ones who will be the center and expand from here to the market of the region? Do we have talent, charm, capacity? Or we are doomed to be a regional periphery forever. And a bathing resort.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the authors of the columns are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
