Time Runs Out for Montenegro's Oldest Newspaper

Montenegro’s Tax Administration on Friday will file a petition to declare Pobjeda bankrupt as the state has been unable to collect taxes owed amounting to about 1.15 million euro.

Once a newspaper with a circulation of tens of thousands, Pobjeda has faced serious financial problems over the past ten years - along with a lot of the print media.

Circulation has dropped to only a few thousand and the company's total debts are estimated at over 26 million euro.

The newspaper was established in 1944 as a newsletter of the new Communist authorities in Montenegro.

The role of Pobjeda was much criticised in the Balkan wars of the Nineties. The paper was accused of conducting "war propaganda and patriotic journalism" and of displaying blind loyalty to the Montenegrin leadership during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia.

Pobjeda's tradition of supporting whatever government is in charge has continued in the last few years.

The editoral and managing team have often been accused by the independent media and intellectuals of serving Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic as a weapon in his fights with his political opponents.

Djukanovic's government have tried hard to save the newspaper, but three attempts to privatize the daily since 2007 have failed.

The Tax Administration said it had "repeatedly tried" to collect the cash that the newspaper owes but had exhausted all other options and was going for bankruptcy.

"The initiation of the bankruptcy proceedings ... confirms the principle of non-selectivity, which means that state-owned enterprises do not have and must not have preferential treatment compared to other businesses," the Tax Aministration said.

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