Pink M TV assessed the statement of the US Embassy in Podgorica, in which reports of the media outlet are seen as “misleading”, as highly bias and selective.
Namely, the Embassy of the United States of America in Podgorica stated it was disappointed because in the news broadcasted on 22 October, PinkM TV had failed to air official response of the embassy’s spokesperson regarding its twit of 12 October.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxG-5_pLL6k
“The Twitter messages of the US Embassy, including the one of 12 October, in which the Embassy expresses continuous support to independent and responsible media, are official Twitter messages reflecting the official views of the US Embassy and the State Department. The US Embassy is proud of the work of its employees, particularly our local employees, who have decades of expertise and experience in their fields and who have been working for years to improve democratic reforms in Montenegro and strengthen bilateral relations between the United States and Montenegro,” the Embassy stated.
The issue began when Pink M TV announced that the Montenegrin public faced another attempt by the Public Broadcaster and the opposition to manipulate the citizens. Namely, according to Pink M, RTCG connected the tweet of the US Embassy in Montenegro with the alleged pressures against RTCG in an inexplicable way.
Pink M TV says that its editorial staff has found out that US Embassy officer Sasa Brajovic is a co-founder of CRNVO along with Goran Djurovic, a member of the RTCG Council, which Brajovic has confirmed in a telephone conversation.
“It is our duty to point out that there is an objective possibility that Sasa Brajovic cannot be an impartial clerk at the US Embassy in relation to Goran Djurovic and his media activity in the Public Broadcaster, as a member of the RTCG Council,” Pink M TV stated.
The media outlet adds that it sent questions asking for clarification the twit and Sasa Brajovic’s controversial action to PR officer Jeff Adler who sent them back to Brajovic.
“So we have been deprived of honest and precise answers to our straight questions,” Pink M TV claims.
And these are the questions sent to the Embassy:
Pink M claims that Sasa Brajovic answered the questions by re-tweeting the post from 12 October.
The media outlet says that it asked Jeff Adler then to comment on whether the limiting factor for Sasa Brajovic’s impartiality is the fact that he is a partner in the company and has a personal relation with Goran Djurovic, the RTCG Council’s member, who, according to the competent state authorities, has violated Montenegrin laws.
Pink M TV asked the US Embassy whether the impartiality of Sasa Brajovic could be guaranteed by the ambassador and the State Department.
“The answer which says that the ‘Embassy is proud of the work of its employees’ does not contain the facts required in our questions. Therefore, Pink M TV has not broadcasted it as irrelevant, since it has not been related to the topic we dealt with. We do not want to believe that the position of the United States of America’s honourable administration, even less of the US Embassy in Montenegro in a friendly NATO member state, could be that it is allowed for lower-ranking officials to interfere in internal affairs such as politics and the media scene of sovereign countries such as Montenegro, although a number of employees are violating these rules and interfere with internal political issues,” Pink M TV says.
