Media Council for Self-Regulation Council (MSS) strongly condemns the attack on colleagues from Vijesti and Pobjeda, who were physically assaulted, harassed, detained, and whose work equipment was seized and partially destroyed while they were professionally carrying out their task – reporting to the public on events in Gornje Zaostro, where Chetnik apologists, led by Metropolitan Joanikije, glorified a man under whose command innocent people were killed 80 years ago.
Photojournalists Stevo Vasiljević and Boris Pejović are proven professionals whose photographs have documented all the most significant events in Montenegro, and whose work has long surpassed the country’s borders in both quality and recognition. Yesterday, individuals attempted to destroy that professional record to prevent the public from seeing the moment the monument was removed. For the gathered crowd, it was important to record the celebration and consecration, while at the same time preventing photographs of the removal of the memorial.
The respect that Vasiljević and Pejović enjoy in the media community and among the public, as well as the professionalism they have demonstrated over more than 20 years of reporting – including in the most critical and dangerous situations – was not recognized or respected by the crowd in Gornje Zaostro yesterday.
Journalists and photojournalists in Montenegro are facing increasingly frequent forms of violence, and their safety is at an alarmingly low level, as confirmed by numerous cases of physical and verbal attacks, attempted murders, and murders over the past decades. However, Montenegro does not recall an attempt at an organized mass lynching of journalists from two newsrooms such as the one that occurred yesterday – involving detention, threats to “strangle them with bare hands,” seizure of equipment, and its destruction.
The “honorable” Montenegro does not recall an incident in which 15 people beat one man who had been locked inside a tent, while another was threatened with death if he published anything in the media. The abuse, which lasted for more than an hour, was not stopped by police officers who were present, nor by the clergy who were giving blessings that day. The lynching was halted only by a few conscientious citizens who evacuated the team from the crowd.
MSS calls on the State Prosecutor’s Office and the Police Directorate to promptly bring the perpetrators to justice, to determine the responsibility of the police present at the gathering, as well as the command responsibility – why such a high-risk event was not properly secured, which is standard practice even for less risky gatherings. MSS also asks whether the event was recorded, as there was no customary announcement of this kind, which the police had previously given to the public during similar events in Montenegro.
The gross violation of human rights and freedoms, and subsequently of media freedoms, that took place yesterday in Gornje Zaostro represents an attack on individuals, the media, and free expression. Institutions must carry out their primary role – the protection of citizens’ rights – and yesterday’s events showed that the system is not functioning and that no one is safe, even while performing professional duties.
MSS will inform its international partners about this incident and will not accept the normalization of violence that we have been witnessing in recent times. It is time to put an end to polarizing and hateful political narratives, and for institutions to demonstrate strength and thoroughly investigate the attack.
Ranko Vujović
Executive Secretary
Media Council for Self-Regulation
