Yesterday, on 16 January 2018, Human Rights Action (HRA) filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court of Montenegro for the annulment of the final decision of the Parliament of Montenegro dismissing NGO representative Goran Djurovic from membership of the Council of the Radio and Television (RTCG) of Montenegro. HRA now attempts to suspend execution of this decision until the competent court decides whether the decision was lawful.

Today we requested the Parliament of Montenegro to put on the agenda of its 19 January session the request for postponing the execution of the decision on the dismissal of Djurovic. If the Parliament rejects this request, we will ask the Administrative Court to issue a provisional measure ordering suspension of execution of the Parliament’s decision until the court’s decision.

“We expect from the Parliament to accept that the disputed legality of its decision should be determined by the court before insisting on implementation of that decision. HRA considers that the judicial review of the legality of the dismissal of a member of the RTCG Council is of great importance for the protection of freedom of expression and legal order, and that it is necessary to halt implementation of this decision in order to prevent the occurrence of greater damage”, said Tea Gorjanc-Prelevic, HRA executive director.

In the lawsuit to the Administrative Court, it was pointed out that during the dismissal of Djurovic, the Parliament erred in its application of law, as it based the dismissal on the law which does not regulate the dismissal of members of the RTCG. HRA recalls that Djurovic was dismissed from the RTCG Council for violation of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, because he failed to timely report that during his membership in the Council he was for a while also the executive director of a private company engaged in agricultural production. However, this type of offense is not listed as one of the reasons for the dismissal of the members of the RTCG Council, which are prescribed exclusively by the Law on Public Broadcasting Services of the RTCG. As the later law in this case represents lex specialis, the Parliament failed to respect the legal principle of lex specialis derogat legi generali during the dismissal of Djurovic and did not base the decision on the law that was the only one valid in that case.

Goran Djurovic is represented by lawyer Dalibor Tomovic.