Montenegrin journalist for The Geopost: The authorities are not doing enough to fight the pro-Vucic media

A part of the Montenegrin media is under Serbian influence. This is what Tamara Nikcevic, award-winning regional journalist and author of the “Aritmia” show, says in an interview for The Geopost, while adding that the authorities in Montenegro are not doing enough to combat this phenomenon.

According to her, the control of the majority of influential media in Montenegro by structures connected to the regime of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is mainly political and not economic in nature.

“Vučić or the BIA today control most of the Montenegrin media”, she underlines.

Nikçević also tells The Geopost the challenges faced by journalists who criticize the authorities, including constant harassment and pressure.

“Unlike Serbia, where the media controlled, on the one hand by Vučić, on the other by Dragan Sholak or Dragan Gjilas, have an almost identical editorial policy when it comes to the region, especially Montenegro and Kosovo, as well as according to priorities of Serbia’s foreign policy, in Montenegro you have a clear difference between BIA media and media that criticize the government’s policy”.

Full interview:

The Geopost: Data shows that most of the most influential media in Montenegro are controlled or owned by structures in Serbia directly or indirectly connected to the regime of Aleksandar Vučić. What are the reasons for this – economics or more political influence?

Nikçeviq: Of course, we are talking about political influence. Montenegro is a small market and we all know that there is no particular economic profit there. So it is purely political influence.

Today, Vucic or BIA controls most of the Montenegrin media. It is a public secret that these televisions, newspapers and portals are integrated, very often from one center they coordinate and agree who will be a guest where, who where and how to release any kind of fake news, which is then broadcast by others .

Unlike Serbia, where the media controlled, on the one hand, by Vučić, on the other hand by Dragan Sholak or Dragan Gjilas, have an almost identical editorial policy when it comes to the region, especially Montenegro and Kosovo, as well as priorities of Serbia’s foreign policy, in Montenegro you have a clear difference between BIA media and media that criticize the government’s policy. The latter are not as powerful, but I wouldn’t underestimate their impact.

The Geopost: How much is Montenegrin society, culture and the country itself destroyed thanks to such a media image?

Nikçević: To a good extent, the media has influenced this, and all those who are more serious with this analysis, can see this. Unprofessional and very low-educated journalists and columnists like, for example, to rewrite history, and you often get the impression that they write their so-called texts or columns with the idea of ​​singing them to the lute.

An example of the malignant influence of the media in the Montenegrin society is the portal (In4S) which is not registered in Montenegro and whose founder is the current rector of the University of Montenegro, Vladimir Bozhovic.

All the media horsemen of the apocalypse from the region, all the warmongers and darkness are there. Or, recently I listened to Serbian radio in Montenegro, which in its central news broadcasts not only gives more information from Serbia – Vučić is of course the best and most beautiful – than from Montenegro, but also informs the listeners where the Pope of the State Church of Serbia will hold the liturgy. It is more or less the same in other media.

The Geopost: Are they doing something and what are the current authorities doing to change the situation, or do these media opportunities really suit them?

Nikçević: They don’t do anything, it’s not even a question. This kind of media situation suits them exactly. The work of some local media, for example, is not only influenced by city or state-level authorities. I believe this is implied. The journalists of these media testify that they are obliged to fulfill all the wishes of local officials, directors or secretaries of the city secretariats. This is what media freedom looks like in the interpretation of those primitives.

The Geopost: What is it like to be a journalist in Montenegro today, especially critical of the authorities? In the last four years, you have personally been targeted several times because you are known as a critic of the authorities and state bodies and you have been interrogated. The Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SST) of Montenegro recently tried to penalize you because you had communication with former special chief prosecutor Millivoje Katniq.

Nikçeviq: You asked me several questions, so I will answer them one by one. Unfortunately, I cannot testify to you what it is like to be a journalist in Montenegro. As usual, at the moment I am cooperating with the media in four states of the former Yugoslavia – Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Croatia.

At the moment I do not have a secure engagement in Montenegro. In addition to the status of several years as the author of Pobjeda from Belgrade, some kind of correspondent from Belgrade or someone who covered the region, I visited Montenegro from time to time. The city television (Gradska televizija), portal and radio RTV Podgorica which I founded and edited in the period 2020-2023 was actually an incident. Like my shows that I had on the public media of the Television of Montenegro.

In the Montenegrin media, unfortunately, the situation is similar to that of politics: channels have been opened, but among those local geniuses from both sides, whose fame generally does not go beyond Bioče (a small town near Podgorica), there still a consensus: and that is that there is no place for me in their media.

This low agreement is a compliment to me, it is imposed on me and I wear it like a medal.

Regarding the attacks, as a journalist and editor of some media, I have never mystified these things. I created City Television (Gradska TV), edited it professionally, brought the best Yugoslavia and the best Yugoslavs to Podgorica; after only one year, Podgorica’s local public media became a small regional brand. The Liberators, of course, broke this and created a “prettier and older” City TV. And I can only congratulate them for this!

With a part of what the journalists of “Gradska” and I went through together with them, of course, the public is informed, a part is unknown, because we were not in the habit of complaining about every threatening e-mail and threatening message we received. We have worked professionally, we have tried to work professionally despite attacks and labeling by the government, political parties, representatives of institutions, dangerous criminal groups and others.

In the end, you asked me about the scandal related to the former prosecutor Millivoje Katniq – the accusations of the bloodthirsty prosecutor (Milos) Soskic, who tried to criminalize some journalists and the Montenegrin writer Milorad Popovic because of their contact with the former special prosecutor Millivoje Katnić, who was unconvicted at the time, a free man, speaks not only about the way an important institution in Montenegro treats journalists and the media, but also about the way the prosecution, abusing the power it has, abuses and tries to kill a man to whom he practically denies the right of protection.

And that would be all you need to know at this point about the criminal, primitive, litigious, puppet government, which, apart from our “western partners”, was wholeheartedly supported by our great friends from the opposition parties and free media in Serbia.

/The Geopost