Address by President Brajović to the invitees:
Ladies and gentlemen,
Distinguished representatives of public word,
It is my pleasure to congratulate you Day of Journalists of Montenegro, on my own behalf, and on behalf of my colleagues - vice presidents of the Parliament of Montenegro.
I am glad that you responded to the call to mark Day of Montenegrin journalism together. We wish, in this manner, to pay respect to your profession, the importance of public word and the role of the journalism branch as a whole.
You nourish significant and long tradition of Montenegrin journalism, marked by the first printed syllable in newspaper “Crnogorac”, on 23 January 1871. Soon there will be a century and a half since when passionate admirers of reality and lovers of truth, have been tirelessly writing on turbulent times and events, famous persons, and destinies of so-called “regular people”, building a magnificent mosaic of suffering and rising of Montenegro through the history.
Today, we are all experiencing temptation, particularly creators of the public word.
I believe that journalists have an exceptionally important role and should contribute to the security and stability of society, building the basic principles of journalism in its foundations: objectivity, truthfulness and independence, improving the standards of their profession and expanding the areas of media freedom.
The Parliament of Montenegro, for its part, is obliged to promote media freedom and provide a strong contribution to the preservation of the environment for objective provision of information and smooth and safe work of journalists, which is an important prerequisite for the progress of the entire society.
As you hopefully know, the transparency of the Parliament of Montenegro has been recognised by some international surveys. We will contribute to that assessment by raising the existing level of openness and transparency at higher level, not only by enriching the programme “Open Parliament”, but also by expanding the cooperation with all public actors. The parliamentary web site, updated daily, will be redesigned and modernized to meet the needs of users, especially when it comes to the transparency of laws and regulations.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to address you as the President of the Parliament, practically at the beginning of my mandate, for the first time at this solemn occasion. Therefore, I have a duty, at the beginning of this joint work, to inform you about the most significant challenges awaiting the Parliament during this year, at domestic and international plan.
As you know, 2016 was an election year, and the Parliament justifiably did not work in its full capacity, which means that this year will be more demanding. Thus, I expect that reporters from the Parliament will have more work to do.
Anyhow, parliamentary activities will be certainly focused on adopting laws, which are, needless to remind, a foundation of just, safe and stable state that we are building and a roadmap towards a modern society of the highest democratic standards.
I would also like to announce numerous international activities. We have elected members of permanent delegations of the Parliament of Montenegro to the parliamentary assemblies of the CE, NATO and OSCE, as well as Inter-parliamentary Union.
The adoption of the Law on ratification of the NATO Accession Protocol for Montenegro will be on the parliamentary agenda soon. Of course, I will not give a political speech to you on the importance of this, along with EU integration, the most important foreign policy goal. I would like to emphasise that I will not hesitate for a moment, when all previously needed procedures are fulfilled, to schedule a sitting related to this issue. So allow me to have special emotion with regard to this issue, given that I belong to those politicians who have never had a dilemma in terms of the direction that Montenegro should follow in its foreign policy.
Also, efforts will be made to the affirmation of the role of MPs, as well as defining mechanisms aimed at improving parliamentary work and the creation of organisational and other prerequisites for strengthening the oversight role of Parliament.
Strengthening of the administrative capacities and development of human resource will be continued. Strong legislative activity will almost certainly launch additional processes aimed to improve the work of the Parliament in existing segments, but also the creation of new forms of support in order to create conditions for MPs to have a stronger and better technical support.
Cooperation with the media is a precious bond between the Parliament and the public, and I hope, that we will continue to strengthen and deepen these ties, while respecting the needs of citizens. Please note that the Parliament will, as always, within the limits of its spatial and technical capabilities, create conditions for the work of parliamentary reporters.
Distinguished media representatives,
I hope that our January meetings, outside of the busy daily routine, aimed to enhance the cooperation, will become traditional and that next year we will be able to state that we have all worked together successfully in the interest of the citizens of Montenegro.
At the end, I will repeat that it is my pleasure that we have met tonight on the occasion of your holiday. If we are sincerely devoted to development and strengthening of a democratic, prosperous, stable Montenegro, the state of solidarity, justice and equal opportunities, then we are on the right track.
I wish you a happy Day of Journalists!”
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