By The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomes the recent move by the Montenegrin parliament to establish an inquiry into historic attacks and killings of journalists in the country, stressing that such an investigation must make meaningful progress on criminal cases that have been mired in impunity.
IPI has long called for concrete steps by Montenegrin authorities to bring justice in historical cases of killings of journalists, including Duško Jovanović, the founder and chief editor of daily newspaper Dan, who was killed in front of his newspaper’s office in 2004, and for which only one accomplice has ever been convicted.
Our organisation welcomes the announcement on February 20 to launch the inquiry as an important development, which will specifically probe the role of state authorities in politically-motivated killings and attacks. However, IPI also recognises the long-term and serious challenges previously involved in making progress in historical cases of impunity in the country.
We stress therefore that all steps to re-investigate these and other impunity cases must be carried out with the highest level of professionalism and expertise, with input from journalist organisations and associations, with the potential aid of international law enforcement authorities, if and where required, and with sustained political will.
In addition to the killing of Jovanović, over the past two decades Montenegro has experienced several serious physical threats and attacks on journalists and media, according to monitoring by the Safe Journalists Network (SJN). Many of these cases, also documented on the Mapping Media Platform (MMF), remain unresolved, with some even having reached the statute of limitations. In 2018, Olivera Lakić, an investigative journalist covering organised crime and corruption, faced an assassination attempt in which she was shot and wounded in the leg. Serious recent cases involve the verbal and physical attack in November last year on Ana Raičković, editor of the daily Pobjeda.
Regrettably, previous commissions and investigations have in recent decades repeatedly failed to make significant progress on the most serious cases. In a country where political and law enforcement circles have faced accusations of complicity in the ordering and execution of attacks on journalists, and then obstructing subsequent investigations, this process will not be easy. Progress will therefore involve shining a light on political parties, law enforcement bodies, prosecutors, and state bodies which have historically stymied investigations.
IPI and our partners in Montenegro sincerely hope this inquiry will overcome the barriers that previous iterations have faced and instead yield significant results, identifying both the perpetrators, masterminds and motives. Efforts to develop media freedom and improve journalists’ safety in Montenegro are intertwined with achieving justice in these historic cases. We will monitor the progress of the inquiry in the committee, stand ready to support if required, and expect to see tangible results.
IPI continues to stand by all those journalists, activists, associations and organisations in Montenegro working to break the cycle of impunity for attacks and killing of the country’s journalists and will continue to advocate for free and independent journalism.
