Foreign owners of newspaper accuse Montenegrin PM

Source: Vijesti, VIP

PODGORICA -- The foreign owners of the Podgorica-based daily Vijesti have accused Montenegrin PM Milo Đukanović of "jeopardizing” their investment in Montenegro.

They are U.S.-based Media Development Investment Fund and Austria-based Stiria media group.
The two companies said in a letter that Đukanović, by using “provocative vocabulary(...) encourages hostility towards the daily and other independent media," and that in this way “jeopardizes their investment in Montenegro as well.”

The letter was carried by Vijesti.

MDIF and Stiria own 55 percent of shares in the Daily Press company, the publisher of Vijesti, whereas the two companies’ share in TV Vijesti is 25 percent.

“With due respect, we appeal to you to restrain from provocative vocabulary when you speak about Vijesti and other independent media as well as to take adequate steps to relieve - not to encourage - the hostile environment they are faced with,” the letter reads.

The letter also recalls the recent Đukanović’s statement given in an interview when he referred to one of the founders of Vijesti, Miodrag Pervić, as “the leader of the Montenegrin media mafia.”

The prime minister also spoke about the media founded by Pervić as "media monsters” and their co-owners as “anti-war profiteers.”