Montenegrin police have dismissed as unfounded the complaint filed by the wife of Podgorica Mayor Saša Mujović against journalist Vesna Rajković Nenadić for harassment, the Media Institute of Montenegro reported on July 30.
As Radio Free Europe recalls, the journalist was questioned two days earlier after she shared a photo on her personal Facebook profile showing Danijela Mujović wearing slippers from the French brand Christian Dior, accompanied by an ironic comment:
“Poor ‘liberators.’ Everyone dresses at Koton. This is 100% knockoff, as my son would say when he doubts if something is original.”
The police determined that her post contained no elements of a misdemeanor.
Previously, the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor also found that the post did not constitute a criminal offense.
For journalist Rajković Nenadić, the decision by the authorities was expected.
“We have to learn what democracy is,” she wrote on social media.
The Media Institute assessed that initiating any proceedings against Rajković Nenadić would endanger freedom of expression:
“Because her post is satirical in nature—a provocation and a form of criticism—protected by the Constitution, Montenegrin laws, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.”
The NGO Human Rights Action (HRA) had previously called on Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković and Police Director Lazar Šćepanović to halt the prosecution of journalist Rajković Nenadić.
In a letter sent by HRA, they stated that Mujović’s complaint did not meet the conditions for initiating proceedings, as the content of the comment did not constitute a criminal offense or misdemeanor.
They added that using repressive state mechanisms in such cases directly threatens freedom of expression.
According to the standards of the European Court of Human Rights, criminal sanctions on free expression are permissible only in cases of hate speech or incitement to violence—which, they emphasized, is not the case here.
Source: RSE