Legal Statut

The Agency for Electronic Media is the AVM service regulatory body in Montenegro with public authorities is acting pursuant to the Electronic Media Law. The Agency is an independent legal entity, functionally independent of any state body, and of all legal and natural persons performing activities of production and broadcasting radio and TV programs, or providing other AVM services.
The Agency for Electronic Media and a regulatory body competent for field of electronic communication are obliged to cooperate and coordinate their work, in accordance with this Law and with provisions of a separate Law regulating the field of electronic communications; they will cooperate and coordinate work referring to radio frequencies intended for AVM service providing. The Agency will cooperate with the regulatory body competent for electronic communications and with the state administration body competent for protection of competition in the course of performing the analysis of electronic communications service market, which is a condition for providing and/or accessing AVM service. The Agency will, prior to a decision on issuing the license for AVM service providing, exchange information with the regulatory bodies of other EU Member States on AVM service providers if the broadcasting of radio or television program or provision of other AVM services refer to other EU Member States as well. The Agency will cooperate with relevant regulatory bodies of other countries, in order to exchange experiences, improve its work, and ensure harmonization with international experiences and standards. The Agency will cooperate with relevant international organizations, in coordination with relevant state administration bodies. Competent state bodies are obliged to obtain the opinion of the Agency prior to ratification and adoption of international conventions and other agreements referring to AVM services providing.
AEM acquires funds from fees for registration of AVM service providers, annual fees payable as per issued licences for AVM service provision (transmission fee, on-demand AVM service provision fee and other sources of funds in accordance with the law.


AEM Responsibilities

Within the scope of its competences, AEM:

  • drafts the AVM services Development Programme;
  • in cooperation with the regulatory body responsible for electronic communications, drafts background paper for developing a plan for the use of the radio-frequency band, in the section designated for terrestrial broadcasting;
  • approves draft radio frequency allocation plan, as regards terrestrial broadcasting;
  • gives opinion to the regulatory body for electronic communications on the need to designate an operator with significant market power if an analysis determines that relevant electronic communications service market, which constitutes grounds for provision of and/or accessing the AVM services, is not competitive enough;
  • issues licences for provision of AVM services (broadcasting licence and on-demand AVM services provision licence);
  • determines the level of fee for issuance and use of AVM service provision licence;
  • keeps a register of AVM service providers and electronic publications;
  • decides as per complaints of natural and legal persons regarding the operation of AVM service providers (warning , revoking the broadcasting licence or licence for provis on of on-demand AVM service);
  • oversees the Law implementation;
  • adopts and implements secondary legislation accompanying this Law;
  • performs other tasks, as per the Law and the AEM Articles of Association

Council

The Council of the Agency for Electronic Media has five members. The Council is appointed by the Parliament of Montenegro. Candidates for the Council member are nominated by: universities, non-governmental organizations for protection of human rights and freedoms, non-governmental organizations in field of media, Montenegrin P.E.N. Centre and associations of commercial broadcasters. The Council is appointed and dismissed by the Parliament of Montenegro. The duration of the mandate is 5 years.


Council Members:

  • Ranko Vujović , President (appointed 2016, term of office: 2021)
  • Sasa Knezevic, Member, (appointed 2015, term of office: 2020)
  • Edin Koljenovic, Member (appointed 2016, term of office: 2021)
  • Rajko lTodorovic, Member (appointed 2017 in replacement, term of office: 2019)
  • Budimir Damjanović, Member (appointed 2018 in replacement, term of office: 2019)

Agency

Director: Goran Vuković

Contact

Agency for Electronic Media
Bul. Svetog Petra Cetinjskog 9
81000 Podgorica
MONTENEGRO
Tel: +382 20 201 440
Fax: + 382 20 201 430
Website: www.aemcg.org
Email: ard@ardcg.org