The best tool for keeping media free is a strong and coherent self-regulation. This is the message sent to the country from EU experts. No code of ethics can be implemented if there are no sovereign and empowered self-regulating bodies.
Montenegrin Law on free access to information is adopted seven years ago, but experiences from journalists and NGOs are showing that it is still very hard to obtain data that is of public interest.
Media lynchings, physical assaults, threats. This is what investigative journalists face in Vučić's Serbia. An interview with Branko Čečen, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS)
Srđan Kusovac, councelor of Milo Đukanović, claims that the detention of journalist Martinovic was extended in accordance with the legal reasons. Kusovac also denied that any form of influence had been exerted by Đukanović himslef upon the adoption of this decision.
Journalist Jovo Martinovic was arrested in October last year on suspicion that he took part to the activities of criminal groups dealing with drug trafficking. Human Rights Watch denounces that he has been in pre-trial detention for 11 months now and that the date of his hearing has not been defined yet.
Initial analysis conducted by the Civic Alliance in the frame of the monitoring of the election campaign ahead of parliamentary elections in 2016 shows that 20% of the articles include veiled endorsements for specific political forces, with the newspapers Pobjeda and Dnevne Novine leading this trend.
Referring to changes of media laws, OSCE representative for media freedom Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in which, among other things, she warns that the imposition of any general programming quotas represents a limitation of media freedom and of editorial policy.
In a letter adresses to Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, OSCE Representative for Freedom of the media Dunja Mijatovic said that the introduction of mechanisms to support pluralism is a positive step, but the proposal of the goevrnment needs to be revised so as to include several other issues.
The analysis recently published by MANS finds that most of the press is under the direct or indirect control of the government and the ruling party, while independent media face many difficulties. "The government gives subsidies and allocats advertising mainly to those media that support the ruling party, thereby distorting the market, while independent media are subjected to financial problems. In addition, numerous court cases still represent a significant burden to finance independent media", the report points out.
The amendments to the media law, proposed by the three opposition mps and oriented to the improvement of the law, raising the professional standard and limiting the interference of governement on the media sphere, have not been adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly
