Montenegrin TV Parliament:

Parliamentarians as Editors

 Velizar Sredanović

In the early ‘90s, and under the cover of democratization of socialism, communist authorities from Belgrade to Ljubljana were demanding not only live TV broadcasts from the Republic Parliament and other parliaments but also live broadcasts of the sessions of the Central Committees of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. At that time, nationalistic fighting started in full view of cameras, almost as an introduction into the fall of Yugoslavia and the bloody civil war, from Triglav, and now unfortunately, as it turned out, to Vardar.

In that spirit of “telegenic” politicians, especially those in power, new political elites were brought up in countries created by the fall of Yugoslavia. The problem is all the bigger for it is up to those political elites to make state radio and television really public services. So, in Montenegro, new laws on radio broadcasting and electronic media are in preparatory stage. Efforts are being made to form independent regulatory bodies and limit the state monopoly over media through assigning of frequencies.

In the meantime, the old understanding of radio and television as servants of the state and authority is still not dying: it is not enough for them to torture the audience through live broadcasts of Parliament sessions on the RTV of Montenegro since days of the former SFRY, but they usurped a whole TV channel – TV Parliament?!

Never mind that there is no such situation which, under influence of, frequently, hard and tactless words from the parliamentary positions, cannot be turned into a crisis, but hours and hours of monotonous arguing, retorts, and retorts to retorts are, with my apologies to Messrs. professional politicians, simply – boring.

Namely, the purpose of television, among other things, is to bring timely and concise information, and thereby spare to the viewers at least some of short leisure time available, but not to the cost of being informed about issues of public interest. Let alone social/economic and historical reasons for which the institution of parliament has arisen – necessity to represent various interests in a more and more numerous society in which all the citizens would not gather on one location for the purpose of political debate, and a need for functional specialization and division of labor, which enables a surgeon to be a surgeon and not to wear himself out at political debates. Presumably, someone is paid, to avoid saying elected, to deal with it?!

Therefore, would not it be more adequate to report about the Parliament decisions and the most significant moments of discussions, through a full use of television tools, especially editing and cuts that are very dear to me being a frustrated viewer? I, as a viewer, do not want, out of pure boredom, to sleep through the parliament decision about, say, tax increase. Neither do I want from television – to which I have been paying subscription and which is also mine, because I am a part of that famous public the needs of which the public service serves – to simply inform me about that decision. Instead of terrorizing me with endless quarrels of the Parliament representatives, I demand for an independent expert for fiscal policy to explain and comment on that parliamentary decision. The task of an editor of public radio and television, which are here to assist in a timely and complete informing about what can cost me money and nerves, is to find and bring such an expert, I am not going to look for one?!

However, while doing that, that editor does not have right, or rather, has obligation not to deprive my child of educational program about animals and not to withhold my due documentary about the World War II only because one parliament representative told the other parliament representative that he disagreed, and that the latter retorted to the former representative… I believe that you understand my frustrations, because one Parliament session on the Montenegro TV looks as a poor and slow Ping-Pong game between two amateurs. Only, unlike a Ping-Pong game, these sessions last even for six hours.

However, politicians who tackle TV program editing are unstoppable: I have already mentioned that all the TV time was insufficient for them, so they “awarded” themselves with a separate channel – in mid-May this year, the parliamentary channel of the Montenegro TV started. Namely, that was what the politicians in the Parliament have decided, without asking viewers and managers of the Montenegro RT. Presumably guided by perception of importance of their own political mission and unimportance of all other things.

Recognizing all reasons of the political opposition, according to which, in this way, the party presence on state-owned electronic media is balanced at least to some extent, and the First and the Third Program of the RTV of Montenegro are noticeably relieved of political topics, there is a fact that, again, the logic of the medium itself and of the public service - as an institution in service of the society's interests, not those of the state and not those of either position or opposition politicians - are being ignored. A whole channel of the public service is made available to politicians?! It has never been done neither for educational program nor for always attractive sporting events, although the public service is not a public informative and political service, but, by its basic idea, it is just opposite to an absolute domination of one topic or one group or one interest. Then, whom does such television serve – (op)position? Position is, anyway, quite present in our informative programs, and the opposition is to fight, in the Parliament, for independence of public radio and television and their professionals, which would guarantee respect of elementary journalistic ethics in treating political options and individuals

It is quite incredible that all these democrats, at least in regard to the media, are to be reminded of words of one king, Nikola I Petrovic, who, in the Constitution of Montenegro in 1905, succinctly wrote: “Press is free”. It simply makes you wish him to be an editor of informative and political program on Montenegro TV!

Velizar Sredanović, publicist, working as a Deputy Director of the Public Company “Radiotelevizija Crne Gore”. Edited by: Svjetlana Nedimović. Translation by: J.F. ©Media Online 2001. All rights reserved.

source: Media Online 03-09-2001
published by: Roland Brunner rbr@medienhilfe.ch date of release on this site: 04-09-2001

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