MEPs to Tell Montenegro to Protect Journalists

The European Parliament is to debate freedom of the media in Montenegro on Thursday amid concern that the media community is highly divided and that attacks on journalists remain unsolved.

Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee will debate a draft resolution on Montenegro, which also notes that journalists are poorly paid and that jobs are insecure.

MEPs are concerned that incidences of intimidation of journalists is encouraging self-censorship and limiting the scope for investigative journalism.

The resolution, drafted by the European Parliament's rapporteur for Montenegro, Charles Tannock, condemns ongoing smear campaigns "mostly by one tabloid newspaper", targeting prominent civil society activists and some politicians on a personal basis.

That is the first time that a resolution by the parliament has directly referred to media attacks on human rights activists and opponents of the ruling elite in Montenegro.

The resolution urges continued OSCE-facilitated dialogue on improving ethical and professional standards in the media.

It also urges the authorities to resolve the pending cases of violence against journalists, including the murder of editor Dusko Jovanovic in 2004.

Montenegro must address these problems by "identifying not only the perpetrators but also those behind the attacks and by implementing recommendations issued by the ad hoc media commission set up to monitor the attacks," the document reads.

The only tabloid operating in Montenegro is a local edition of the Belgrade-base newspaper Informer, which, together with the Montenegrin branch of Serbian TV Pink, is widely considered to be close to Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.    

The opposition, local watchdogs and some...