PODGORICA, 27.03.2018. – In the past six years, from 2011 to the second half of 2017, Montenegrin courts have worked on 109 cases related to compensation for damages based on a lawsuit against journalists/media. More than a million and two hundred thousand euros were claimed for damages.

Of the total of 109 cases, 80 cases were resolved, the claim was adopted or partially adopted in 24 cases and a total of 45,300 euros was awarded for compensation.

However, although the amount request for compensation in lawsuits totaled to EUR 1,245,061 significantly less was awarded, 3.64 percent.

If we review individual amounts awarded per judgment, they range from EUR 500 to EUR 2,000, while in one case, EUR 5,000 was awarded, and in one EUR 7,000.

On average in 2015 awarded compensation per case was EUR 2,750, in 2016 EUR 1,945, and in the first half of 2017 EUR 1,887.

Lawsuits for breach of honor and reputation are decreasing

When it comes to the number of cases against media and journalists for breach of honor and reputation, it is noted that their number slightly decreased. This decline was particularly noted in the first half of 2017.

In 2011, 21 lawsuits were submitted, in 2012 9 lawsuits, in 2013 14 lawsuits, in 2014 22 lawsuits, in 2015 19 lawsuits, in 2016 18 lawsuits, and in the first half of 2017 four lawsuits.

Out of 109 cases, in 13 cases the lawsuit was filed against both the media and journalists.

In other cases, the lawsuits were filed only against the media. Out of the aforementioned 13 cases, the three claims were partly accepted. According to Supreme Court data which FOS reviewed in four cases, the request was rejected, the lawsuit was withdrawn in two cases, while the proceedings are ongoing in four cases. In only one case, the lawsuit was filed exclusively against journalists and that lawsuit was withdrawn.

BELGRADE, 26.03.2018. – Two persons: B. S. and M. S, “apparently connected with the KLA”, are mentioned in the documents of the UNMIK Missing Persons Unit under suspicion of involvement in the crime of the disappearance of Mr. Ljubomir Knezevic, the journalist of the Pristina “Jedinstvo” and the correspondent of “Politika”.

In the police file of UNMIK, additional nine suspects are suggested, in connection with the request for the extension of the investigation led by lawyer Stoja Djuricic, who represented the defendants in the process against former KLA commander Gani Ymeri from Vucitrn.

However, even in these UNMIK files there is no information about police attempts to find those people and interview them.

– UNMIK did not do anything to conduct an investigation, the Human Rights Advisory Panel (part of UNMIK) notes with concern, in opinion dated February 14, 2014, and delivered to Ljubomir’s son Goran.

The commission recommends that UNMIK request from EULEX and other competent authorities to continue the criminal investigation, while families are waiting for justice. It was the first and last time that, in 15 years after the disappearance, the Knezevic family heard about the investigation.

Previously, the family of Ljubomir Knezevic was unofficially informed that their father and husband were held in the Ćićevac camp, but nothing more in addition. The data from the Serbian security services from the White Book link three of the top members of the KLA operational area “Shala” (region of Kosovska Mitrovica, Vucitrn, Obilic, Zubin Potok and Leposavic) with the disappearance, but also they claim, with the murder of Mr. Ljubomir Knezevic. Gani Ymeri was also a commander in this zone.

For Knizevic’s kidnapping in the White Book of the Government of Serbia titled  “Albanian Terrorism and Organized Crime in Kosovo and Metohija” and published in September 2003, the suspects are Hisni Ahmeti, called His, Met and Bekim Shuti, nicknamed Niku.

Bekim Shuti was the commander of a special KLA unit of 40 members, which was said to have kidnapped our colleague.

– Knezevic was taken to the headquarters in the village of Oshljana where he was tortured and then killed, according to the White Book.

Husni Ahmeti was “part of the group who kidnapped Knezevic on the bridge of Sitnica river in Vucitrn, and who was killed after several days of physical torture”. Met Shuti is also listed as a participant in a criminal offense.

After the arrival of international forces, all three of them moved to the top of the command of the Kosovo Protection Corps. According to the UNS, they were never examined.

Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, while cross-examining a Kosovo Albanian witness, before the Hague Tribunal, asked him about the murder of Knezevic.

In search for the source of this information, the UNS addressed the Citizens Association “Freedom”, which was actively involved in the defense of Slobodan Milosevic and who has Defense documentation from The Hague.

However, in their archives, they do not have any information that could indicate what kinds of facts are hidden behind Milosevic’s question. They say “the former president received information from various sources.”

When he disappeared, Ljubomir Knezevic was 60 years old and already had grandchildren. On Djurdjevdan, on May 6, 1999, he went to the family of Laketic, who lived three kilometers from the city center, near the railway station.

He went there also as a reporter. Knezevic left Mr. Laketic house at around 6 pm. He was going on foot. Since then, he was never seen again.

UNMIK police did not even try to talk to Laketic.

– As the last people known to have seen him alive, they could have provided at least information that could help in establishing the route which Mr. Ljubomir Knezevic used when he left their house, thus assisting in determining where his alleged abduction took place and point to other potential witnesses – the UNMIK Human Rights Advisory Panel says.  But, nobody asked.

The UNMIK police annual report for 2000 states that until the end of that year, UNMIK police had full investigative authority in the Mitrovica region.

– The apparent lack of any immediate reaction from UNMIK Police, and of any adequate action at later stages, may have suggested to perpetrators that the authorities where either not able, or were not willing to investigate criminal acts. Such attitude of the authorities towards the gravest crimes in any society, and especially in post-conflict circumstances, inevitably creates a culture of impunity among the criminals and can only lead to a worsening of the situation. The problems, which UNMIK had encountered at the beginning of its mission, do not justify such inaction – is another of the conclusions of the UNMIK Human Rights Advisory Panel.

The EULEX mission, who took over all crime investigations, was for nine years claiming that it had no information about the kidnapping of Mr. Ljubomir Knezevic.

The UNS has come to the information that this case was in the Mitrovica court and presented it to EULEX.

Subsequently, EULEX informed UNS that UNMIK decisions related to the Knezevic case were forwarded to that mission and other competent authorities in 2014 with a request to “take all possible steps to ensure the continuation of the investigation.”

EULEX further explained to the UNS that UNMIK documentation from the investigation “has never been officially handed over to EULEX prosecutors, but only a copy of the opinion of the Advisory Panel”.

In a letter to UNS, EULEX explains that since 2014, due to changes in jurisdiction, new cases have been handed over to the local prosecutor offices.

The case of Ljubomir Knezevic’s kidnapping case is now in the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office. Still, no one has contacted Knezevic family.

The first text of the UNS on investigating the disappearance of “Politika” journalist Ljubomir Knezevic: “Investigating the disappearance of journalist Ljubomir Knezevic: Intimidated witnesses, dismissed prosecutor and judge” read HERE.

The panel discussion was attended by the OSCE Ambassador in Skopje – Nina Suomalainen, Robert Popovski – Minister without Portfolio in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, responsible for communications, accountability and transparency, Ellery Biddle- Advocacy Director for the Global Voices Network and Olga Kyryliuk from the Ukrainian organization Digital Defenders Partners, and the discussion was moderated by the Director of the Internet and Society Foundation “Metamorphosis”, Bardhyl Jashari.

Suomlainen, quoting the OSCE’s previous media freedom representative – Dunja Mijatović, reminded that everything that is valid offline, is also valid online, even though the digital world is a relatively new one, it brings new challenges. Among other things, she said that the Internet and freedom of expression, unfortunately, are also a platform for negative phenomena such as hate speech and terrorism, but at the same time, she stressed that it is precisely this freedom that is also a tool for fighting terrorism through offering opportunities for social cohesion.

The proposals for online media registration provided by the Minister in charge of accountability and transparency, Robert Popovski, were strongly criticized by the Romanian representative, Bogdan Manolea, from APTI and the Kyrgyz Media Development Center, who reminded that Macedonia is a member of the Council of Europe and that it should respect its declarations and standards.

Minister Popovski responded and said that this is just a proposal for debate and that the Government will never go against what the majority of journalist’s jurisdictions do not agree with.

Ellery Biddle from the Global Voices Advocacy spoke about Facebook and its rules, that is, about its right and obligation to take care of freedom of expression, as well as the (in) effectiveness of its moderation systems, especially for the languages of the region.

Olga Kyryliuk, however, from the Ukrainian organization Digital Defenders Partners, among other things, mentioned the practice of filtering and blocking online content by some countries and thus violating international law.

The Summit, held from 22 to 24 March in Struga, featuring over 120 internet freedom experts and human rights activists from Europe and Eurasia and representatives of international organizations, continued with plenary sessions and workshops divided into three main topics: freedom of expression, privacy and cyber security.

SARAJEVO, 23.03.2018.- The Steering Committee of BH Journalists Association requests from the System Board of BHRT to stop all existing forms of censorship and direct pressures on editors and journalists of BH radio and BHT1, including instructions on which news can and which can not be published in the Informative program. The editorial independence and the right of self-deciding are parts of freedom of expression and media freedom, and should not under any circumcises be brought in question with the decisions of the BHRT management or their direct interference into the content of the public RTV service.

It is particularly disturbing that the direct order of the Director of BH Radio 1 Pejka Medić prevented publishing of the announcement of the BHRT Trade Union organization on Thursday, March 22, with the explanation that it is a “minority union” with which the management does not negotiate. According to this or some other instruction (unknown to the public), the announcement was not published in the News at 7 pm on BHT1, although the content of the announcement was not controversial, it did not deviate from the ethical codex and contents of a number of other, previously published press releases of the BHRT Trade Union Organization , as well as the public reactions of the Independent Workers’ Union in BHRT.

The Steering Committee of BH journalists Association reminds members of the BHRT  System Board, Belmin Karamehmedović, Pejak Medić and Nikola Marković that there is no legal basis or provisions of the PBS Editorial Principles, nor any other principles of journalistic ethics and international media freedom standards that allow or can justify censorship , pressure on journalists and editors. It is particularly impermissible to bring the journalistic values and the freedom to publish news and other informative content in connection with the “negotiations” between the BHRT management and trade union, regardless of whom it represents, majority or minority.

The Steering Committee of BH journalists Association reminds the management of BHRT-a how professional damage and demolition of the reputation of BHT1 caused by the re-filming and publishing of the interview with Sebija Izetbegovic, director of the Clinical Center of Sarajevo, and already we are witnessing a new professional scandal and the unsuccessful treatment of members of the management. In this context, the Steering Committee of BH journalists Association once again urges the BHRT management to fully respect the freedom of expression, the rights of journalists and all other media workers, and stop censorship, repression and violation of the human dignity of journalists and journalists in the state public service.

The Steering Committee of BH journalists Association 

PODGORICA, 23.03.2018. – Trade Union of Media of Montenegro condemns behavior of a citizen Zdravko Gojković, who yesterday, threatened to Vijesti journalist Jelena Jovanović, at her workplace. Jovanović was threatened only because of the work she has performed. We consider as unacceptable this disrespectful behavior which individuals allow themselves in order to intimidate journalists and thus influence their work.

The behavior of Gojković, who has already been known to the police is even more concerned having in mind that he threatened to her in Vijesti newsroom, which means that journalists can no longer feel safe at their workplaces.

The threats to Jovanović are the first incident this year, in which the victim is employed in the media, so when compared to the previous year, the trend of attacks and threats does not decrease.

Additional concern is the practice which involves impunity of attacks on journalists and media, as well as the prosecution’s statement that the worst that can happen to Gojković, who, according to media reports, has already been convicted, is to be sentenced to one year in prison (criminal offence of endangering security).

If, during the last year when the Criminal Code was amended, there was an understanding for Human Rights Action proposals, which the Union supported, now we would have the criminal offenses Attack on journalist while performing professional tasks and Preventing journalists in performing professional tasks for which a prison sentence of up to five years was proposed.