Television “777“ which is owned by the Lottery of Montenegro, completely illegally broadcasts its program, and the approval, that has received from the Agency for electronic media, was issued contrary to the laws and regulations.The documentation that MANS overlooked shows that the Lottery of Montenegro received the approval to broadcast television programs contrary to the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of issuing licenses for transmission and broadcasting signal, which was in effect when the permit was issued.
According to official information that we received from the Agency for electronic media, the Lottery while issuing of this permit has not provided not even one of the whole list of documents whose submission is mandatory in this process.
Instead, the Lottery in the application of data on the structure and scope of the program states that the content of the program is going to be 100% entertaining program, while for the planned time, the language in which will be broadcasted, the participation of its own production in the news, entertainment, sports, kid’s program, the cultural-artistic and documentary education program, the participation on again broadcasted programs and the participation of purchased programs, there is not even one document.
In the same request to the Lottery on information on the responsible designer and acting professional control of the project it is stated ’’ it will be delivered later“, for studies location there is no information, for the brief explanation of technological solution of the technique study as well is stated ’’it will be delivered later“, for the covering zone there is no data, and the same answer is given for the rest of data that are, in fact, needed to obtain the approval for broadcasting.
Despite the fact that the Lottery hid from the Agency crucial information on which it was possible to conclude whether the Television 777 is qualified for getting the license, this institution still issued debatable approval, apparently believing ’’on the word“ by the owners of the Lottery of Montenegro.
Even the only one information that the Lottery submitted about the program of its television is incorrect, which is also neglected in the competent Agency. The fact that everyone is known is that the TV 777 does not broadcast only entertaining program, as it is stated in the license application, but broadcasts the news and propaganda-advertising content, with systematic promotion of the founders- the Lottery of Montenegro and Lottery Association which belongs to NGO REGISTRATION, as well controversial businessmen who control them, Branislav Micunovic and Sava-Dzigi Grbovic.
Beside that the program content of the TV 777 significantly is focused on the violation of rights and freedoms of man and citizen by using offensive terms in the most primitive way, and even the Media Council for self-regulation in the final report on the monitoring those terms from the statement of NGO REGISTRATION, which several times a day appeared on the TV 777, called offensive and street-level terms.
Not only the Agency illegally issued a license to the Lottery, but that authorization and illegally lengthened. According to the official documentation the approval which was issued to the Lottery it was valid until the end of the previous year, actually until 12.31.2013. Already mentioned Ordinance defines that the application for extension of approval must be submitted at least six months before the expiration of the existing, which, in the Lottery case, was in the middle of last year.
Instead, the Lottery’s request for extension of approval was submitted 12.27.2012, again without any information as when the first permission was requested. Beside that, the Agency has adopted such a request by the Lottery and without any valid basis extended license until the middle of 2015th year.
So, the Lottery of Montenegro using the TV 777 continues to broadcast television program with no interruption despite the fact that still has not provided evidence that it meets the technical, physical, and human conditions, nor submitted program schedule with all the elements that the law prescribes.
MANS specifically indicated that the decision of the Agency must be based on the application of laws and regulations, and it should not depend on who has applied, or who are founders or protectors. Having in mind that the Lottery did not submit any document committed by the law, we are concerned that the responsible from the Agency decided using some other criteria.
For all these reasons MANS requested from the Agency for electronic media immediately to revoke the license from the Lottery of Montenegro to broadcast television programs on Television ’’777’’, and warned responsible in the Agency that to tolerate violation of the law, and also helping others in that, represents a criminal act of abuse of official position that is characterized as an act with specifically expressed elements of corruption.
In the attachment you can find the controversial request for a permit.
MANS
