Montenegro bans Russia Today and Sputnik

Russian media Russia Today and Sputnik will be excluded from Montenegro from Wednesday, April 20, the Council of the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM) unanimously decided.

With this decision, official Podgorica is in line with the foreign policy of the European Union (EU) in monitoring measures towards Russia, due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Although it was announced on March 1 that Montenegro would join the EU sanctions against Russia, the Government of this country, after several delays, only on April 8, made a decision on the application of sanctions against Russia due to the military invasion of Ukraine.

The decision was published a week later on April 14 in the Official Gazette, after which the conditions were formally met for state institutions to start applying sanctions against the Russian Federation, companies and individuals from that country.

The AEM Council did not explain why it waited six days from the publication of the Decision in the Official Gazette to schedule a session at which it decided to exclude Russia Today and Sputnik, whose broadcasting was banned by the European Union on March 2.

“The AEM Council stated that, with the entry into force of the Government’s Decision on Restrictive Measures against Russia Today and Sputnik, all service providers are obliged to exclude those programs and their contents from their offer without delay. This means the suspension of all permits for broadcasting, for transmission and distribution on any platform”, it is stated in the announcement of the AEM Council.

According to the decision of the Government, the Agency for Electronic Media, as the regulator, is responsible for the implementation and control and compliance with this decision.

“The competent bodies of the Agency will use all measures to implement this decision,” the statement reads.

On March 2, the EU banned the broadcasting of Russian government media, and the sanctions cover all means of transmission and distribution.