In just a few days, almost all the levers of the state, the security service, the prosecution, the police and the court, turned against Montenegrin journalists. We are no longer talking about incidents, but about a pattern.
The Media Council for Self-Regulation strongly condemns the broadcasting of the so-called documentary film "Referendum - the story of invented freedom", a product of the Center for Social Stability in Novi Sad, which was aired in two episodes on Montenegrin televisions with national frequency - TV Prva and TV Adria, on May 20 and 21.
The Media Council for Self-Regulation is asking the Police Administration and the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica to urgently identify and prosecute the person who sent a death threat to Kristina Perković, a journalist of Standard portal, and her children via Instagram, and to qualify the act as a threat to security, not a misdemeanor.
The Media Council for Self-Regulation, on the occasion of World Media Freedom Day, reminds the fact that media freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution, but it does not mean that it is guaranteed in practice. The Constitution of Montenegro obliges everyone in the country to respect media freedom, guarantee freedom of expression, prohibit censorship, but also the right of access to information held by state authorities. This should not be just a declarative formulation, these are the constitutional obligations of the state. Media freedom exists as long as the judiciary, institutions, political elites and the profession itself are ready or powerful to fulfill those obligations.
