Human Rights Action (HRA) condemns yesterday’s stoning of daily Dan facilities. According to HRA records, this is the seventh attack on journalists and their property from the beginning of 2015.
HRA reminds that there were two attacks on daily Dnevne novine correspondents’ property last month, and that vehicle of daily Dan correspondent was damaged in May. Since the beginning of 2015 three other cases of attacks on have been reported, which unfortunately continues the trend from 2014, when 10 similar cases were reported to the police.
An American NGO dealing with human rights protection, Human Rights Watch, published its report A Difficult Profession Media Freedom Under Attack in the Western Balkans, stating that the state of Montenegro was responsible for impunity for most crimes against journalists. The report, inter alia, cited HRA data that 20 cases of attacks and harassment of Montenegrin journalists have been recorded between 2010 and early 2014, including explosions at media outlets, car bombs, attacks and death threats.
HRA and Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) proposed the Ministry of Justice at the 1st National Conference on the Judicial Reform Process named “Judicial Reform in Montenegro – results achieved” to amend the Action plan for implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy 2014-2016 with a measure that would provide drafting an needs analysis for amending the Criminal Code of Montenegro in order to prescribe enhanced protection of members of the profession performing public services and which are exposed to increased security risks, including journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists. This provision was stipulated, for example, by the Criminal Code of Serbia.
HRA reminds that attorney Vlado Bjeković was murdered in November 2012, that attorney Radovan Vukmanović has been attacked in Žabljak in May 2012, and that attorney Ratko Pantović was beaten in June 2015 in front of his house in Tivat.
HRA hopes that its proposal for amending the Action plan for implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy 2014-2016 and drafting the proposed analysis will be accepted and thus contribute that such attacks no longer happen in the future.
