Podgorica, (MINA) – It is important to the majority of Montenegrin citizens that the Public Broadcaster is independent of any form of political influence, the survey on media literacy among the general population and their habits, needs and opinions regarding media, has shown.
Mican Andrijasevic from NGO Juventas explained that independence of RTCG is important for 76,5% of the respondents, out if whom 62.3% believe that it is very important.
“However, only 25.1% of the respondents believes that RTCG is independent (mostly or fully) of political influence, 36.8% of the respondents believe it is not, and 25.1% believe that the Public Broadcaster is partially independent”, Andrijasevic remarked.
According to him, considering that the Law on National Public Broadcaster envisages program independence, as well as independence of the Council of RTCG and the journalists employed in that media, it is very concerning that only every fourth respondent believes that RTCG is fully independent of any political influence.
“In the light of many events that happened in last year in regard to the national broadcaster, we can conclude that the results of the survey are not surprising”, Andrijasevic said.
He believes that only a national broadcaster freed of any political influence can satisfy “democratic, social, cultural, educational and other needs of public interest of all segments of Montenegrin society and provide for achieving rights and interest of the citizens and other subjects in the field of information”, as envisaged by the Law.
The public opinion survey was carried out within the project “Improving media literacy in Montenegro”, by NGO Juventas and MINA with financial support of the US Embassy.
The survey was carried out in the period between 22 November and 21 December last year on a sample of 995 respondents.
The text has been produced with the financial support of the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica, under the project “Rereading – Rewriting. Improving media literacy in Montenegro”. The content is the exclusive responsibility of the Mina news agency and does not necessarily reflect the views of the USA. The text may be distributed provided that its source is duly credited.
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