The rules for the EU Investigative Journalism Award in Montenegro fully respected

Journalist Sead Sadiković won the first prize of the “EU Award for Investigative Journalism” contest in Montenegro for 2014.

The Peace Institute, a non-governmental organisation and a research institute from Ljubljana, Slovenia, is a regional coordinator of the EU-funded project “Regional EU award scheme for investigative journalism in Western Balkans and Turkey”. It coordinates the work of seven partner organisations – civil society organisations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey – which are implementing the EU awards in these countries.

Since we are receiving questions from some media in Montenegro about the EU Award transparency, its rules and criteria, we would like to assure that all rules and criteria for the Award have been carefully developed by the partner organisations to reflect propositions set by the European Commission as the founder of the Award. The criteria for the Award as well as detailed rules and guidelines for procedures have been approved by the European Commission. They are the same in all seven countries.

In Montenegro and all other six countries – which all have finished the contests, announced and delivered the Award (Tirana, the final one, was completed yesterday, on 16 July 2015) – the rules, procedures and criteria were fully respected. No complaints to the rules, criteria or decisions have been received in any country except the questions we are receiving from some media in Montenegro.

Since some questions refer to the lack of transparency or lack of visibility of the contest when it had been open in Montenegro, it is important to emphasize that the contest was open on 17 March 2015 with a press conference organised by partner organisation Montenegro Media Institute (MMI), with presence and contribution of the Head of the EU Delegation in Montenegro, Mr. Mitja Drobnič. All major media in Montenegro reported about it. The contest with all documents – Call for nominations, Instructions for submission of nominations and Nomination form – have been available at the web site of the MMI. The institute distributed the information about opening the contest to the media community in Montenegro through e-mail distribution list, and also sent several reminders. The contest was open unti1 15 April and 21 nominations were submitted by the deadline.

In the documents, which have been continuously available to the public at the web site of the Montenegro Media Institute there are all rules for the procedure and also the criteria for selection of the winning investigative stories.

The independent jury was composed of five professionals knowledgeable about the media and journalism in Montenegro and approved by the EU Delegation to Montenegro. The jury has made decisions about the winners of the first, second and the third prize, in accordance with the criteria and its own judgment. It is important to emphasize that the work of the jury was completely independent and the decision on the winners was their sole responsibility. The award ceremony was organised in Podgorica on 24 June 2015.

The administrative rules such as who can take part in the contest have been fully respected.

It was possible to nominate for the award the investigative stories, reporting on societal issues related to abuse of power and fundamental rights, corruption and organised crime in Montenegro that otherwise would not have been brought to the public’s attention. These investigative stories had to be published or broadcasted in the media in Montenegro (for the audience of Montenegro) between 1 January and 31 December 2014.

These rules are simple and clear.

There had not been other exclusion criteria for nominations – now mentioned in the questions – such as nationality of the authors, whether they are staff members of the Montenegrin media or are working in non-governmental sector, or whether their organisations or projects have been financed by the European Union or any other organisation.

These eligibility criteria have not been included in the rules as they do not matter for the goal of the EU Award – to award good investigative stories about societal issues related to abuse of power, corruption and organised crime in Montenegro published in the media in Montenegro in 2014, about the issues which otherwise would not have been brought to attention of the public and citizens of Montenegro.