Montenegro Police Vow to Prevent Attacks on Media

The head of the Montenegrin police, Slavko Stojanovic, said on Tuesday that media freedom is the basis of any democratic society, and that his force is working to protect it.

In the past few months, Montenegrin journalists working for independent media outlets, including daily newspapers Vijesti and Dan and the weekly Monitor, have been the victims of serious physical assaults. Most of the cases have not been solved.

Stojanovic was speaking at a meeting with the OSCE’s media freedom representative, Dunja Mijatovic, who has often urged the Montenegrin authorities to end the climate of apparent impunity for attacks on journalists.

Stojanovic did not give Mijatovic any information about the ongoing investigations, but told the OSCE official about preventative measures that the police officers say they are taking to protect journalists.

"One of the preventative activities is a risk assessment of the vulnerability of the employees in the media – journalists - which is out of obligation under Chapter 23 [of the EU accession document], which is currently proceeding,” Stojanovic said.

Mijatovic also noted that freedom of the media was important for EU integration.

“Acts of violence against members of the media not only threaten the victims themselves, but they also have a direct impact on media freedom in the country,” she said.

In December 2013, the government established the Interior Ministry-led Special Commission for Monitoring Investigations of Cases of Attacks on Journalists, which would probe incidents like the unsolved killing of Dan editor Dusko Jovanovic in 2004.

"I welcome the establishment of this commission and hope that it will yield results. I will...