Deputy Prime Minister Pažin: Government stands ready to support establishment of self-regulation, without any interference in its independence

Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Pažin spoke Wednesday at the opening of the conference on “Investigative Journalism and the Code of Ethics – Obstacles, Challenges and How to Attain Professional Standards”, hosted in Podgorica by the Montenegrin Center for Investigative Journalism and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, with the support of the EU Delegation in Montenegro.

“To the extent in which the media themselves seek to achieve a united self-regulation system, they will have the full support of the Government, which will spare neither resources, nor effort to make the concept of media self-regulation economically sustainable, of course, without any interference in the independence of the self-regulation system,” Pažin announced.

He invited members of the media community to take active part in the process of amending media laws, with a view to attaining high international standards in the area of the freedom of expression and the freedom of media in Montenegro.

The Deputy Prime Minster recalled the Prime Minister’s inaugural speech, which clearly stressed that the government did not wish to have ‘its own media’.

“We don’t want to have ‘the government’s media’, but we feel the responsibility and we are ready to work together with you, in line with the government’s constitutional powers, in order to improve the regulatory framework that governs the freedom of media, in a way that will advance that freedom,” the DPM stressed.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO