Dailies "Dan" and "Vijesti" publish absolute falsehoods about Government's conclusion

Podgorica, Montenegro (11 July 2014) -- False and unfounded claims published by Montenegro's dailies “Dan” and "Vijesti", according to which the Government allegedly “approved” and “verified” the Report of the Commission to monitor actions of the competent state authorities regarding the investigations of old and recent cases of intimidation and violence against journalists, murders of journalists and attacks on media property for the period 6 February - 6 May 2014, and then it, as the dailies claim without any evidence, changed its stance after few persons, who might have knowledge of certain events within the scope of the Commission, made contacts with the commission's members. It is also untrue that the Government of Montenegro, apart from publishing the conclusions of the Item 31 of the 72nd session, "has communicated” anything related to the report of the commission.

At its 72nd session of 19 June 2014, the Government of Montenegro was informed about the Report of the Commission for the period 6 February - 6 May 2014. These facts were literally stated in the reply submitted to Portal “CDM” and dailies “Dan” and “Blic Montenegro” on 10 July 2014, as a response to requests from the three media for clarifying the conclusion of the Item 31 of the 72nd Cabinet meeting regarding the Commission’s “offer” from the paragraph 7 of the Report.

Three aforementioned media received the following response: “As it was concluded and communicated to the public, the Government of Montenegro got acquainted with the report and did not adopt it as specified in the question submitted by "Blic Montenegro". Also, the Government did not, as the question from the daily “Dan” claims, verify the decision on offering a reward for information on murder of Duško Jovanović at its previous session, and it did not take any position regarding the report, that is, the claims, proposals and judgments set forth in the document.”

Therefore, the facts submitted to the three aforementioned media clearly indicate that the allegations published in today’s edition of the daily "Dan" saying that “the Government refused to offer a reward”, as well as in the daily "Vijesti" claiming “the Office of Milo Đukanović adopted the commission’s report on 19 June”, and especially the statement published in the daily “Vijesti”, which claims “it was published on the Government’s website,” are completely untrue.

The government did not neither “adopt the report” nor such a thing has ever been published or communicated to the public. Therefore, the statement of the daily “Vijesti” is absolutely baseless and a pure fabrication. Such a thing has never been published on the website of the Government (or communicated by the government), and the report of the daily “Vijesti” from the 72nd session of the Government was titled “They re-offer one million for information on killers?”putting a question mark in the headline and stating it was a “recommendation” from the report of the commission ( daily “Vijesti” of 20 June 2014, page 10).

The daily “Dan”, that is, its editor-in-chief and Chairman of the Commission Nikola Marković, published the allegations in the article titled "Đukanović got scared of witnesses" (daily “Dan”of 11 July 2014, page 10), claiming the Government “verified” the report of the commission which he presides over. As a “proof” for his claims, he presented the agenda of the session in which next to the item 31 (Report of the Commission) it is written - “for verification”.

Mr Marković, as an experienced reporter who has long been concerned with issues of domestic politics, knows that the Government’s agenda also includes items that are open to discussion and those that are not, as they are supposed to have been discussed at the session of the government’s commissions. Therefore, the Government, in line with the Article 57 of the Government’s Rules of Procedure (No. 06-12881/7 of 29 December 2011, “Official Gazette of Montenegro”, No. 3/2012 from 13 January 2012) “opens a discussion on each item of the agenda which is opern to discussion”, and the term “for verification” does not mean the government verifies the contents of the document, as insinuated or assumed by Mr Marković. The Government, in accordance with its Rules of Procedure, do not open a discussion on this item of the agenda. All of this is precisely prescribed by the Article 55 of the Rules of Procedure and is a fact every journalist engaged in domestic politics, as well as Mr Marković, should be familiar with.

Furthermore, Mr Marković’s claim published in the daily “Vijesti” that “the Government decided to offera reward" is untrue. The government did not reach any decision on the report of the commission chaired by Mr Marković, because no document had been submitted to the government whatsoever. Articles 32-49 of the Rules of Procedure of the Government of Montenegro precisely prescribe the content and form of documents to be submitted to the Government of Montenegro for adoption. For determining truth, you just need to read the part of Article 34 stating that “Draft conclusions (of the Government) contain a precisely defined obligation, a person in charge and a deadline for the execution of a duty" and the Conclusion of the Government related to the Item 31 of the 72nd sessions.

Link to a document that represents the Conclusion of the Government on the Report of the Commission was submitted yesterday to the daily Dan’s reporter Dražen Živković (the conclusion was also submitted to Mr Marković). The document confirms all the facts stated in the response to the daily “Dan” and denies Mr Marković’s allegations. Nevertheless, the daily “Dan” has never published the conclusion.

Given the fact that all the three documents, namely the Government’s Rules of Procedure, the report of the commission and the Conclusion of the Item 31 of the agenda of the 72nd Cabinet’s session are public and published on the website, it is easy to determine whether these facts or the claims made by the Commission’s chairman are true.

Publishing unfounded allegations and obvious untruths do not contribute to finding perpetrators of attacks on journalists and media, and resolving all cases of assault. By setting up the Commission and by condemning all attacks on journalists and the media, as well as by voicing expectation the relevant state institutions will clarify and resolve cases of attacks as quickly as possible, the Government has confirmed its commitment to the rule of law as a fundamental requirement for creating an optimal environment for ensuring media and other freedoms within European and Euro-Atlantic perspective of our country.

PUBLIC RELATIONS BUREAU OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO