PODGORICA, 22.04.2026. – The Basic Court in Berane has acquitted Danko Femić of charges that he committed the criminal offence of coercion against photojournalists from Vijesti and Pobjeda, Boris Pejović and Stevo Vasiljević, during the installation of a monument to Chetnik commander and war criminal Pavle Đurišić in Berane (city in the North of Montenegro).
Femić’s trial began in October 2025, while a separate proceeding for the same criminal offence is ongoing before the Basic Court in Berane against Nikola Raičević and Milić Ralević. Following the same incident, which took place in August 2025, two misdemeanour proceedings were also conducted against several individuals.
According to the indictment, Femić was accused of attempting to coerce the photojournalists into stopping their filming and deleting the material they had recorded.
During the trial, the injured journalists and several defence witnesses were heard, and the court also examined the circumstances of the event itself, which was marked by a large gathering and heightened tensions. In Gornje Zaostro, the photojournalists were attacked by dozens of individuals who insulted, threatened, and physically assaulted them, damaging and confiscating their equipment.
Throughout the proceedings, the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Berane emphasised that Pejović and Vasiljević were attacked while performing work of public interest.
“The defendant forcibly took the camera from the injured party, accompanied by threats: ‘If the photos are published, I will find you and kill you.’ It has been established that he undertook actions containing elements of coercion,” the prosecution stated in its closing arguments.
Femić, on the other hand, admitted that he had “taken” the cameras and removed the batteries and memory cards, but denied any criminal liability. The defence argued that the only victim in the case was their client, who spent three months in detention.
In the reasoning of the judgment, delivered publicly today at the Basic Court in Berane, the court found that the elements of the criminal offence of coercion had not been proven in Femić’s case, and that there was insufficient evidence that he used force or serious threats to compel the journalists to act in a certain way.
The parallel proceedings against Raičević and Ralević have been postponed several times, among other reasons due to the absence of the defendants and their lawyers, as well as requests for the recusal of the judge—circumstances which the injured parties have described as obstruction of the proceedings.
The attack in Gornje Zaostro prompted strong reactions from both domestic and international audiences, with journalists’ organisations warning that it was one of the most serious incidents targeting media workers in Montenegro in recent years.
T. Radulović