Activity Details (ID# 7445)

Activity Synopsis

The general objective of the expertise mission was to discuss the Council of Europe experts’ comments on the draft Montenegrin Law on media concentration (see Doc. ATCM (2004)018) and to examine what measures the Montenegrin authorities should take in order to better monitor and possibly regulate media concentrations. 

The expert meeting was extremely well organised and well attended. The Council of Europe experts’ comments on the draft legislation had been made available to the participants before the meeting. A Council of Europe report on Media Diversity in Europe was distributed, together with relevant Council of Europe recommendations.

Since the CoE comments were known, the drafters were able to work on alternative solutions which would align the draft Law with existing standards in the area of media concentrations, while taking account of the specificities of the Montenegrin situation.

The discussions enabled the drafters to amend sections of the draft Law, particularly those of a declaratory nature, while, at the same time, taking into account the existing legal framework (e.g. the Broadcasting Law) and the situation in the print media sector in Montenegro.

The media coverage was very good. The expertise mission was covered by all electronic media as well as by the press. Extensive reports were made in all dailies and news programmes in prime time.

Although no questionnaire was distributed, the overall feed-back from the participants was very positive.

Some minor changes were introduced in the programme but did not have any serious impact on the implementation of the expertise mission. The target group was fully reached.
 

No formal declaration was adopted at the end of the meeting. The drafters agreed to re-work the draft Law in order to incorporate the suggestions discussed with the CoE experts and finalise the draft with a view to its prompt adoption by Government. 

Deputy Minister of Culture, representatives of the Ministry of Culture, members and employees of the Montenegrin Broadcasting Agency, members of the RTCG Council, member of the Managing Board of the RTCG, representatives of the OSCE, media owners, media professionals, media NGOs and academics 

Dr David WARD, University of Westminster, London, U.K.
Ms Sandra BAŠIĆ-HRVATIN, Professor of Communications, University of Ljubljana and Chairperson of the Slovenian Broadcasting Council, Ljubljana, Slovenia
 

Mario OETHEIMER, Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights