PODGORICA, 18.06.2020. – Journalists in Montenegro are subject of self-censorship to avoid threats, political pressure, expensive defamation lawsuits and job loss, Freedom House stated in its latest report.
In the part dedicated to the media, they state that reporters who cover corruption and organized crime risk violence. In that report, Montenegro was assessed as partially free with 62 points out of a possible 100. That is three points less than in 2019.
“In May 2018, investigative journalist Olivera Lakić, who reports on crime and corruption among government elites, was shot in the leg outside her apartment. In February 2019, nine suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement, but the investigation into the shooting was still ongoing at the end of the year. Separately, in December, investigative journalist Vladimir Otašević was assaulted by a bodyguard of the controversial DPS-affiliated businessman Zoran Bećirović, who watched the attack in the presence of his friend, state prosecutor Miloš Šoškić”, it is said in the report.
They add that in January 2019, a court convicted investigative journalist Jovo Martinović of drug trafficking and being a member of a criminal group, and sentenced him to 18 months in prison, in a long-running case related to his investigation of such groups as a journalist. An appeals court revoked the decision in October, and at year’s end he was to be retried.
“Despite protests from civil society activists, the public broadcaster RTCG remains under tight control of the DPS”, the report states.