Montenegrin News Magazine Battles Libel Conviction

Independent weekly Monitor has filed a constitutional complaint after the Montenegrin court ruled that the magazine is obliged to pay 5,000 euros in damages to Djukanovic's sister, lawyer Ana Kolarevic, for articles in which she was linked to corruption during the privatisation of the state-owned Telekom company in 2005.

The Monitor appeal argues that such convictions violate the right to freedom of expression as well as human rights and freedoms.

Monitor's editor, Milena Perovic Korac, told BIRN that she was not optimistic that the appeal will be accepted, but it was all the independent weekly could do at this stage. 

"The only thing we could do after this is to file a complaint before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, because after the constitutional complaint, all legal rights in the country are used up," Perovic Korac said.

On November 2013, attorney Ana Kolarevic, the sister of veteran PM Milo Djukanovic, filed a civil lawsuit against independent newspapers Vijesti, Dan, and Monitor over articles alleging that she took bribes during the purchase of Montenegrin state firm Telekom by Magyar Telekom.

Kolarevic demanded 100,000 euros from each newspaper as compensation for current and future emotional distress resulting from the articles. 

All three media outlets are known as strong critics of the government, claiming it is linked to organised crime, particularly in the privatisation of the state-owned companies.

In 2013, they all published articles about an official report by the US Securities and Exchange Commission which claimed that several Montenegrin officials took bribes of 7.35 million euro, among them "a lawyer, the sister of a top...