PODGORICA, 12.01.2021. – A year after the arrest of the former editor of the Fos Media portal, Andjela Djikanovic, the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica decided that there was no causing riot and panic in her actions.
The Police Administration of Montenegro arrested Djikanovic on January 5 last year, for allegedly causing panic and riots by publishing the text “Members of ROSU are available to Montenegro for Christmas Day?”. She was arrested after the then government called on the Prosecutor’s Office to react urgently because, they claimed, “this information is aimed at disturbing the public and causing riots”, although the article was removed from the site after a relatively short time.
It took the Podgorica ODT a little over a year to reject such a police report “because there is no reasonable suspicion that Andjela Djikanovic committed the reported crime, or any other crime for which she is being prosecuted ex officio.”
The journalist’s defense attorney, lawyer Milos Vuksanovic, told “Vijesti” that the only possible decision was finally made:
“And that is the rejection of the report against Andjela Djikanovic, which the defense pointed out from the very beginning of this procedure, although the rejection of the report is only a small satisfaction for a journalist who suffered terrible and completely unfounded terror from the competent institutions of the system,” he said.
Djikanovic was arrested due to the published text and was in police custody.
Late last year, similar charges were dropped against journalists Gojko Raicevic and Drazen Zivkovic.
The arrests of journalists for allegedly causing panic and riots met with sharp reactions from journalists’ associations, as well as international organizations.