Media Self-Regulation Council: Police and prosecutors must treat online threats as seriously as physical attacks on media workers

The Media Self-Regulation Council is calling on the Police Directorate of Montenegro and the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica to urgently identify and prosecute the person who sent death threats via Instagram to Portal Standard journalist Kristina Perković and her children, and to classify the act as endangering security rather than as a misdemeanor.

- We also demand that the Police Directorate publicly disclose the progress made in identifying the perpetrator, and that the Ministry of Internal Affairs inform the public how many of the 33 attacks on journalists recorded in 2025 have been prosecuted and with what outcomes. Without such data, every institutional promise regarding the protection of journalists remains merely declarative - the MSR Council stated.

The threat directed at Perković, which also concerned her children, they emphasize, represents a direct attack not only on the journalist herself but also on media freedom in Montenegro.

- Perković immediately filed a criminal complaint with the Security Center Podgorica, while the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica opened a case on suspicion that the criminal offense of endangering security had been committed. We expect the investigation to be conducted with the same seriousness with which the act itself was carried out - the statement said.

They add that this case is neither isolated nor the first to affect the Standard newsroom.

- In October 2025, the editor-in-chief of the portal, Jasmina Muminović, reported a public threat directed at the newsroom via Facebook, which the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica classified as a misdemeanor rather than a criminal offense, and the proceedings before the Basic Court in Podgorica are still ongoing. Such classification sends the wrong message that threats against journalists are treated as less serious incidents. We call on the competent prosecutor’s office not to repeat that practice in the Perković case - the MSR Council stressed.

Statistics maintained by the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro, they add, show a pattern that must not be ignored.

- During 2025, 33 attacks against media employees were recorded, 18 of them targeting female journalists. Since the beginning of 2026, the Working Group for Journalists’ Safety has recorded nine attacks. The fact that female journalists continue to be primary targets, and that threats increasingly involve sexualized violence and threats against family members, especially children, has also been recognized in international reports. Only three weeks ago, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the European Union stated that journalists must be protected under all circumstances and specifically warned that women journalists are disproportionately frequent targets of gender-based violence, including online harassment - they emphasized.

As they further noted, the European Commission progress report on Montenegro from November 2025, despite all praise, issued its strongest warnings precisely in Chapters 23 and 24 concerning the rule of law and the judiciary.

- This latest case involving journalist Perković falls directly within those chapters. Online threats produce the same consequences as physical attacks - fear, insecurity, and self-censorship - and must not be trivialized simply because they occur in the digital sphere. Experience shows that threats left unsanctioned create conditions for escalation into physical violence - the Media Council stated.

They also recalled the obligations undertaken by the Police Directorate, the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office, and representatives of the media community through the signing of the Cooperation Agreement on Journalist Safety, as well as the mandate of the Commission for Monitoring Investigations into Attacks on Journalists.

- The MSR Council also recalls unresolved cases that continue to undermine journalists’ trust in institutions: the years-long threats against M Portal editor Danica Nikolić, whose perpetrator, although identified, has not been sanctioned; the attack on Pobjeda editor Ana Raičković; and the attack on photojournalists and journalist of Pobjeda and Vijesti - Stevo Vasiljević, Boris Pejović and Balša Rudović - in Gornje Zaostro, after which most of the attackers remained unidentified, while some who admitted to the offense of coercion were acquitted - the statement said.

The Media Self-Regulation Council expressed full support for journalist Kristina Perković and the editorial staff of Portal Standard and expects the competent authorities to treat this case with the seriousness required by both the Constitution of Montenegro and the country’s international obligations regarding media freedom and the protection of journalists.