Uninvestigated case of wiretapping of the Higher Court judges and disappearance of a case file on the application of special investigative measures against judges about which journalist Petar Komnenić reported, and was therefore convicted for defamation and is facing imprisonment, indicate lack of environment for investigative journalism in Montenegro. It is absurd to send Komnenić to prison for the act that has been decriminalised in the meantime. We expect from the president of Montenegro to declare amnesty for Komnenić and hence prevent further negative consequences of the last criminal conviction against a journalist for defamation.

We reiterate that the Basic and the Higher Court in Podgorica convicted Petar Komnenić inconsistently with standard practices of the European Court in Strasbourg which require special consideration of a case in which journalist raised issue of public interest, and in that particular situation journalist is not obliged to prove the absolute truth of his/ her allegations (verdicts as well as HRA press releases are available here).

On the other hand the State Prosecutor’s Office refused to answer to HRA on what was done to investigate Komnenić’s allegations on wiretapping of judges and disappearance of the case file on that issue from the Higher Court in Podgorica. We remind that Komnenić’s allegations were substantiated with the statement of judge Mandić, written note of judge Ganjola, and correspondence between Ganjola and Special Prosecutor Radović.  Although the Administrative Court, in May this year, overturned the decision of Ministry of Justice and ordered the adoption of new decision allowing access to information on this case and other cases, neither the Ministry has issued a new decision nor has the State Prosecutor’s Office announced to public this information, up to date.