The Media Council for Self-Regulation received a complaint from the Media Center regarding the article published by the portal Pobjeda on May 12, titled “Marković: MANS is spreading lies, I never said that Golubović inherited the hotel from his mother.”
The Complaints Commission of the Media Council for Self-Regulation was unable to consider this complaint, as the Media Center did not provide the requested clarifications that were necessary following Pobjeda’s response to the complaint. In its response, Pobjeda stated that “certain parts of the complaint contain allegations that significantly differ from the actual facts.”
The Media Center submitted a complaint simultaneously, directly to the portal Pobjeda, and to the Media Council for Self-Regulation, claiming that the publication of the article “Marković: MANS is spreading lies, I never said that Golubović inherited the hotel from his mother” violated Principle I of the Journalists’ Code of Ethics.
According to the complaint, the article — which was taken from the Facebook profile of attorney Velibor Marković — was illustrated by Pobjeda with a photograph showing Vanja Ćalović Marković and Genci Nimanbegu. The Media Center stated that “some NGOs are lobbying for the Albanian initiative, without naming those NGOs,” and that MANS recognized itself in that statement.
The Media Center argued that Marković’s post, which Pobjeda republished, was accompanied by a photograph that Pobjeda also reused, which they interpreted as suggesting a “private” conversation between Vanja Ćalović Marković and the Mayor of Ulcinj, Genci Nimanbegu. The Media Center believed that with such content, Pobjeda violated the general standards outlined in the Journalists’ Code of Ethics of Montenegro.
In its response, fPobjeda stated that the article in question was illustrated solely with a photograph of Velibor Marković, selected by the editorial team, and provided a link to the article.
“Furthermore, in the Media Center’s statement, it is alleged that Pobjeda used the aforementioned photograph taken from Marković, which we categorically deny,” Pobjeda wrote in its response.
They explained that the mentioned photograph only appeared within the embedded Facebook post from Velibor Marković, which Pobjeda had linked.
“Pobjeda has no control over visual content created by the author of the post on their own social media account. Linking to a social media post is part of standard editorial practice,” Pobjeda explained.
They emphasized that, despite the fact that Pobjeda neither selected nor used the disputed photograph to illustrate the article, and out of respect for Ms. Ćalović Marković’s integrity, the embedded Facebook post by Velibor Marković (which contained the photograph) was removed from the article on the portal.
The Media Council for Self-Regulation forwarded Pobjeda’s response to the Media Center and requested clarification, due to factual discrepancies between the complaint and the portal’s statement. However, the requested clarification was not provided by the Media Center.
The Media Council for Self-Regulation appeals to all future complainants to follow the correct complaint submission procedure. Complaints regarding Council members should be submitted directly to the Media Council for Self-Regulation to enable the Commission to effectively consider potential violations of the Journalists’ Code of Ethics.
Monitoring and Complaints Commission
Aneta Spaić
Sonja Drobac
Danilo Burzan
Branko Vojičić
Ranko Vujović
