History

The beginning of journalism in Montenegro is considered January 23rd, 1871, when the first copy of the paper for literacy and politics called “Crnogorac” was published. Its distribution was banned in the neighbouring territories that were under the control of Austria and Turkey in 1893. As of April of that year, the paper “Glas Crnogoraca” started to be published, and from 1895, it became the official part of the Montenegrin Government, published in the Old Royal Capital of Cetinje until 1915, when its printing was moved to France. Its last copies were made in Rome, Italy, as part of the Montenegrin Government in exile. This paper had been published for 51 years without interruption, together with the add-on “Službena djela,” which served as an Official Gazette for the publication of laws, regulations, and other official materials. 

The Principality of Montenegro (Knjaževina Crna Gora) got its first Law on Press, together with its first written Constitution of the Principality of Montenegro (Ustav za Knjaževinu Crnu Goru) in December 1905. Upon entering into the force of the Constitution and the Law, besides “Glas Crnogoraca,” three additional papers started being published – “Ustavnost” in Cetinje, “Narodna misao” in Nikšić and “Slobodna riječ” in Podgorica, where the last two had a critical editorial policy towards the Government. 

On August 3, 1904, the first radio-telegraph signals from this part of Europe went out into the world from the Volujica Hill near Bar. According to the contract with the inventor of wireless telegraphy, Guglielmo Marconi, who was also the financier of the station with the right to use it for ten years, the Government of Prince Nikola had the permanent right to control what was broadcast.

The news about the opening of Volujica reached the four European capitals of that time - Belgrade, Petrograd, Rome, and Vienna, from where the rulers of Serbia, Russia, Italy, and Austria sent congratulations to the Montenegrin sovereign. The station, by nationality "Montenegrin", registered with the Federal Office for International Traffic in Bern, operated on a wavelength of 500 m, with a range of 200 km. Via a similar station near Bari, Italy, it could communicate "with any part of the world". On August 8, 1914, a gunboat of the Austro-Hungarian fleet destroyed the station at Volujica.

Many years later, on November 13, 1944, the fighters of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia - the Tenth Montenegrin Brigade - liberated the town of Cetinje, and then an order was given to restore the radio station that had been partially destroyed by the enemy. On the twenty-seventh of November 1944, in the newly liberated Cetinje, Radio Cetinje broadcasted news and reports from the battlefield, where fierce battles were fought for the final liberation of the entire country. Radio Cetinje was heard from 100 to 150 kilometres away, and in the beginning, it broadcasted a one-hour program (from 18:30 to 19:30).

At the beginning of 1949, Radio moved to Titograd (current Podgorica). As in Cetinje, Radio Titograd performed the entire program live in those years.

The official start of Television of Montenegro, then Television Titograd in its establishment, is considered to be May 4, 1964. On that day, the first report prepared by the Montenegrin editorial team, led by Dr. Radoslav Rotković, was broadcast in the central news of Television Belgrade.

In 1968, a regular weekly chronicle called "Through Montenegro" began, evolving into a daily program called "News of the Day" in 1971. Since then, Television Titograd, equipped with personnel and technical capabilities, started broadcasting programs from its own studio in the capital of Montenegro, creating its unique television image through various forms of journalistic expression.

Radio Titograd, which in 1990 became Radio Montenegro, together with Television Titograd in 1991, has been operating in a unified radio and television system under the name Radio-Television of Montenegro, following the example of national television stations of other Yugoslav republics that had until then carried the names of their respective capitals.

The only newspaper that was published in Montenegro until the end of the 90s was “Pobjeda”. For decades it represented an informative political magazine of the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Montenegro. The first edition was issued in the liberated city of Niksic on October 24, 1944. In June 1954 “Pobjeda” was released in Titograd, nowadays Podgorica. The average daily circulation of “Pobjeda” in 1982 up to 22.000 copies, and at the end of that decade and the beginning of the last decade of the millennium, a period called AB or anti-bureaucratic revolution that took place on the eve of the dissolution of former Yugoslavia. “Pobjeda” in the Montenegrin situation achieved gold circulation - between 30 and 40 thousand copies a day, until the advent of the domicile of competition (primarily “Vijesti” and “Dan”), which has significantly reduced sales of copies. 

Today, the Montenegrin media market, although small, is very pluralistic. With national and several local public broadcasters, three newspapers, four national frequency televisions, and dozens of radio stations, portals, and regional TVs, it is able to ensure Montenegrin citizens are able to consume a variety of information and data.