Vijesti

Romanian car "unsuitable" for Montenegrin municipality head

PODGORICA -- The president of the assembly of a small municipality in northeastern Montenegro has decided against using an official car received as a gift.

The broadcaster on Thursday said it was taking Vijesti to court because the latter's director, Zeljko Ivanovic, had made false, derogatory statements, which had damaged Prva TV's reputation and business.  

The US Ambassador in Podgorica, Sue Brown, on Tuesday repeated a call for the Montenegrin government to examine evidence that the US authorities have concerning alleged bribery in the privatization of the state-owned Montenegro Telekom firm in 2005.

The Podgorica-based daily on Thursday accused two media outlets, Pink M and Pobjeda, both close to Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, of presenting false, derogatory statements aimed at damaging Vijesti's reputation and business.  

During the last three years alone, media outlets and the country's two TV broadcasters have fired 500 members of staff, while one newspaper went bankrupt, the head of the union,  Marijana Camovic, said on Wednesday.

After 14 years' work there as a reporter, the Podgorica daily Vijesti has axed the president of the Montenegrin Media Union, Marijana Camovic.

Camovic told BIRN on Wednesday that she had been fired illegally and as a "direct consequence" of her engagement on behalf of the rights of media workers.

After claiming his second Wimbledon title on Sunday, tennis star Djokovic is set to marry his fiancée Jelena Ristic on Thursday at a glittering wedding ceremony near Budva, Montenegro, including around 140 guests.

Djokovic and Ristic arrived in Montenegro on Tuesday by private plane for what media in Serbia and Montenegro are already calling "the wedding  of the century".

Mijatovic on Wednesday expressed disgust about the tabloid’s allegations that Calovic, the director of an influential Montenegrin NGO and a prominent government critic, had sexual relations with her two dogs.

"I hope we will hear the condemnation of such journalism, if we can call it journalism. As a person, as a woman, I am appalled," Mijatovic said.

The head of the Montenegrin police, Slavko Stojanovic, said on Tuesday that media freedom is the basis of any democratic society, and that his force is working to protect it.

Slovak FM: Balkan criminals bought passports

BRATISLAVA -- Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak has said that "someone in Slovakia took money to help drug dealer Dragoslav Kosmajac obtain the country’s citizenship."