RTCG Council member seeks withdrawal of support for candidate Bobo Milanoviq

Marijana Camoviq Veliqkoviq, a member of the Council of Montenegro’s Radio-Television (RTCG), has sent letters to the councils of the six national cultural institutions that supported Miroslav Bobo Milanoviq’s candidacy for the RTCG Council, asking them to withdraw their support, as the Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti reports.

Camoviq Veliqkoviq claims that Milanoviq does not meet the legal conditions for membership of the Council, because — according to her — he was a member of the Municipal Council of the Democrats party in Herceg Novi. Under the Law on the national public broadcaster, Council members may not be political party officials during their term of office and for at least three years after the end of their function.

In the letter addressed to the Council of the National Museum, she writes that Milanoviq “in all likelihood” does not meet the conditions, but is “politically suitable”, and asks the institution to withdraw its support. She also cites contradictory statements about his departure from the party — Milanoviq himself says he left in 2021, while the Democrats say it happened in December 2022 — adding that until a few days ago his name still appeared on the list of Municipal Council members on the party’s website.

Media centar and the Centre for Civic Education (CGO) filed a criminal report against Milanoviq at the end of September, claiming that — contrary to the factual situation, which he knew — he signed the declaration that he meets the conditions for an RTCG Council member, Vijesti writes. According to them, this constitutes the criminal offence of forging a document. The director of Media centar, Goran Gjuroviq, said that Milanoviq was appointed a member of the Democrats’ Municipal Council in Herceg Novi on 1 May 2022 and remained a party official at least until the end of July 2026.

As TV Vijesti reported, the Montenegrin National Theatre has already withdrawn its support for Milanoviq’s membership of the RTCG Council, due to a suspected conflict of interest. Camoviq Veliqkoviq had earlier also asked the Minister of Culture and Media, Tamara Vujoviq, and the members of the Parliament’s Administrative Committee not to allow the election to the RTCG Council of persons who do not meet the legal conditions.