On the occasion of 3 May – World Press Freedom Day, the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) wants to congratulate to all media, media associations and journalists their day. This date is also an opportunity to point out to the deteriorating situation concerning media freedom, but also to call again institutions to make substantial efforts in order to create basis for improvement of the position of media and journalists in Montenegro.

The latest Report of Reporters without Borders confirmed the tendency of erosion of media freedom in Montenegro. It should also be emphasized that Montenegro is mentioned within the introductory part of the index, reserved for examples of countries in which the situation in this area causes particular concern. In its 2018 Country report, the European Commission noted that no progress has been made within media freedom, and this is also confirmed in JUFREX analyses by the Council of Europe experts, done with the support of the European Commission, which elaborates in detail media legislation and numerous problems in the media scene itself.

Unresolved attacks on journalists, with the latest brutal attack on journalist Oliver Lakic that occured a year ago, represent disturbing picture of the environment in which journalists operate. »

Centre for Civic Education (CCE) has today, within the programme Let’s put corruption into museum! signed contracts with civil society organisations (CSO) which were awarded funds via second call for support of projects of these organisations in Montenegro in 2018. Through this call, three new projects were supported in the total amount of 27, 749.63EUR, and these organisations will, in the following period, through their activities, strive to contribute to participation of civil society in implementation of anti-corruption policies and practices in Montenegro at the local level.

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Yesterday the website Antidot published an anonymous piece full of malicious misrepresentations of my professional and private life with the clear aim of devaluing my work and, presumably, forcing me to withdraw from public life.

Media and journalists who sign their articles had already written at length about the persons behind this website (https://www.blic.rs/vesti/hronika/otkrivamo-iza-crnobrnje-ljudi-bliski-canetu-i-bebi/7dj8w6e).

An artless reader could, upon reading this piece, walk away with the impression that Daliborka Uljarević constitutes a key problem in Montenegro, as well as abroad, seen that the website is registered in another country and generally targets a different readership. My efforts, through the engagement in civil sector, to contribute to building of society based on democratic values, with need of integration of Montenegro into the EU in line with strict criteria for the benefit all its citizens, were clearly enough to merit this attempt at character assassination.

I do not see the purpose of going through each sentence of this piece and separate fact from slander, for two reasons. First, this should be done by those who commissioned and wrote this piece before judges, to whom I will bring the case in short order. Second, I do not wish to waste time on it, as I can see by the level of brutality of this attack that we must urgently intensify those activities which prompted the attack.

Unfortunately, we live in a society in which such “research” pieces have become a dangerous tool to warn anyone daring to stand up to power that they may be publicly drawn and quartered and dragged through mud of misconstrued lies until the public is convinced that those critics are unworthy of their trust or at least as bad as those they criticise. I am deeply convinced that we are not all the same, and there is no slander campaign that can make it appear so, though some have been trying: the attacks on my person have been going on for a long time, and as it was assessed that it did not produced planned damaging impact, it obviously required intervention of “special forces” from another state.

The very fact that my work and CCE’s activities has upset the guardians of political power and interests so much that they must rouse their attack dogs is encouraging. This degree of mobilization only confirms that our work has consequences and obliges us to continue doing the best we can to accomplish CCE’s vision and mission in the face of adversity.

Daliborka Uljarević, Executive Director

Ana Nenezic, Programme Coordinator in the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) has participated at the meeting of the EU-Montenegro Civil Society Joint Consultative Committee(JCC) held on 18 December in Brussels. Nenezic, a full member of the JCC, as rapporteur has presented a report on state of affairs in the area of civil society and media in Montenegro, as well as proposal of conclusions for joint JCC Declaration for this area.

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