By Out of the total 33 cases of attacks on journalists recorded by the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM) in the SafeJournalists database during 2025, women were the victims in 18 cases. Their male colleagues were targeted in 8 cases, while the remaining 7 incidents involved attacks on groups of journalists or media organizations themselves.
As shown by the TUMM study “Safety of Women Journalists and Media Workers – Montenegro, Brief Overview 2025,” women journalists were most frequently targeted by digital threats and harassment, including death threats, insults, sexist comments, so-called “doxing” (the collection and public disclosure of private or identifying information about an individual or organization online without their consent), as well as various forms of public discrediting.
“Out of the 18 recorded attacks on women journalists, 12 occurred online, demonstrating that the risks faced by women in the media are increasingly shifting into the sphere of digital violence and continuous intimidation,” the study states.
As highlighted in the report, the most common form of attack against women journalists during 2025 fell under the category “Other Threats Against Journalists,” within which a total of ten cases were recorded, most of them involving online threats. Women journalists received threatening and harassing messages or public comments on their private social media profiles, as well as via email.
Within this subcategory, four cases contained gender-based elements. One case involved a woman journalist being targeted by a Facebook page publishing meme content: the page administrators posted her private photograph along with an ironic caption claiming that she was the page administrator and invited followers to “feel free to contact her.” The post attracted insulting and sexist comments.
Additionally, two women journalists were subjected to unfounded judicial and administrative harassment, including SLAPP lawsuits, while in one case a criminal complaint was filed against a journalist over a Facebook post.
During 2025, the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro also recorded seven threats against the lives and physical safety of women journalists — in most cases involving explicit threats. Among other things, journalists received comments and messages such as: “Watch out for a bullet,” and “Well, they killed your colleague in Cetinje with a sniper the other day, so why shouldn’t I order one for you too?” These forms of threats did not contain a pronounced gender dimension, but were aimed at intimidation and endangering personal safety in connection with their professional work.
The SafeJournalists database also recorded one physical incident under the category “Actual Attacks on Journalists,” in which a woman journalist was verbally assaulted and pushed by the perpetrator, who attempted to seize her camera.
Women Journalists Left to Fend for Themselves
The efficiency of the police and prosecution services in cases involving attacks on journalists has improved significantly in recent years, meaning that very few new cases remain unresolved or uninvestigated. Consequently, the greatest problem continues to be the older unresolved cases of attacks.
Most of the threats during the past year were directed at women journalists, making the gender dimension unmistakably clear.
However, the biggest issue in the protection of women journalists is not merely the number of attacks, but the gap between formally existing protection mechanisms and the actual sense of safety.
“Although the report shows that the police and prosecution services are more efficient in new cases than before and that very few cases have remained entirely uninvestigated, no special treatment in cases where women journalists are the victims has been observed, nor is there a comprehensive analysis of legal qualifications in light of the amendments to the Criminal Code,” the TUMM study states.
At the same time, women journalists themselves point out that they often feel left to fend for themselves, that the lack of support even within newsrooms contributes to self-censorship and withdrawal, and that attacks can have long-term consequences for their psychological well-being and continued engagement in the profession. It is particularly significant that only a small number of media outlets selectively provide legal assistance to attacked journalists, while none provide psychological or security support.
The Trade Union’s research also showed that the gender dimension of attacks exists, but is not always consistently recognized.
“In some cases, the threats and harassment contained clearly sexist or discriminatory elements, while in other cases women journalists were targeted primarily because of their professional work. Precisely for this reason, the protection of women journalists cannot be reduced solely to a general response to attacks on journalists, but must include gender-sensitive treatment, a better understanding of digital violence, and clearer accountability within newsrooms,” the study concludes.
