Journalists Launch Trade Union in Montenegro

An initiative to form a new trade union for media workers in Montenego was unveiled on Tuesday.

Journalists have been invited to join the new union with the offer of a subscription of only 2 euro if they sign up in the next 20 days.

"We thought a union should be established that has nothing with editorial policy, with political interests... or with the government or the opposition," Mila Radulovic, a journalist from Vijesti newspaper, said.

The union will be a member of Association of Free Trade Unions, which, along with the Alliance of Independent Trade Unions, is the major umbrella organization for unions in the former Yugoslav republic.

Srdja Kekovic, the leader of the Association, said on Tuesday that he expected the new union to contribute to the umbrella organization by aiding the struggle for employees' rights.

Milena Perovic Korac, a journalist from the weekly Monitor, said the general public was largely ignorant of the need to better protect journalists' working rights.

The media report about the rights of other workers, but very rarely report about the state of their own workers' rights, she said.

Novak Uskokovic, from the daily newspaper Dnevne Novine, and Darko Ivanovic, a journalist whose show runs on the public broadcaster RTCG also took part in the press conference at the launch.