Human Rights Action once again urges the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office and the police to take all measures within their competences to effectively investigate the violations of freedom of expression in the form of attacks on journalists and the media.

We would like to point out, that, exactly one year ago, on 13 March 2012, a meeting on the initiative of the Prime Minister Igor Lukšić was held between the director of the Police Department Božidar Vuksanović, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Duško Marković, the Supreme State Prosecutor Ranka Čarapić, the Interior Minister Ivan Brajović and the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime, Corruption and War Crimes Đurđina Ivanović, and it was decided that the clarification and prosecution of all cases of attacks on journalists and media from past year should be the priority of the police and the Prosecution Office.

Unfortunately, a year later, there is no progress in revealing the masterminds and perpetrators of the murder of the Editor in Chief of the daily Dan, Duško Jovanović, the attack on the writer Jevrem Brković and killing his companion Srđan Vojičić, the attack on the journalist Tufik Softić, the attack on the journalist Mladen Stojović, three consecutive burnings of cars that were property of the daily Vijesti, and the attack on the journalist Olivera Lakić.

Therefore, the assessment given in the Analytical Report of the European Commission on Chapter 23, which, among other things, continues to highlight the concerns of the Commission about the attacks on journalists, and the need for these attacks to be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted does not come as a surprise. Protection of journalists from threats and violence is also recommended, especially through effective research and determination to punish those responsible for previous attacks, which did not happen.

We believe that a thorough investigation of these cases could lead not only to those responsible for the threats and attacks, but also to civil servants who have obstructed a thorough investigation of these cases.

We would like to point out that the Government, despite the measure from its Action Plan for the Implementing of the Recommendations of the European Commission, has never adopted a full report on the investigation of cases of violence against journalists, but deficient reports only about cases that have gone to court, or those aspects of these cases that have been prosecuted. Although we repeatedly requested that this report be amended, that did not happen.

In the meantime, we recommend to the interested public the report of NGO Human Rights Action about the prosecution of attacks on journalists in Montenegro, available at: https://www.hraction.org/wp-content/uploads/Izvestaj_procesuiranje_napada_na%20_novinare-%2011112012.pdf.