The Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro (DPNCG) was established in October 2016. to support and strengthen journalists and media professionalism. DPNCG is active journalists’ association, gathering over 150 members from more than 20 media local and main strema media with different editorial policies, which is about 30 percent of journalist. We carry out our acitivies through psychological and legal support, protection female journalists, establishing mechanisms for professional reporting, especially mechanisms for selfregulation and monitoring the implementation of the Ethical code of journalists.
Here are some of media reports about our activities https://en.vijesti.me/tag/17412/association-of-professional-journalists-of-Montenegro.
Our main activities are the line for legal assistance and psychological support, which is up and running for five years.
Legal assistance: We have legal who represents journalists in cases of police, courts, prosecutions, giving them legal advices about attacks, threats, labor-related legal advices, guidance and instructions for the behaviour in the particular cases, access information in the public domain.
We have cooperation agreement with lawyers, whose services are privileged for journalists and cheaper than the tariff of The Bar Association.
Six journalists currently have legal support:
Journalist and TV Vijesti correspondent (Verbal attack and disruption of work)
Editor of the Public Service (Mobbing, sexual harassment, possible threats)
Journalist and correspondent newspapar Vijesti (On line harassment and persecution on the “yellow” portal)
Journalist and editor in the Public Servise (Attack)
Journalist and editor in weekly newspaper (Political pressure)
Reporter on the private televison (Labor-related legal advices).
In the previos period The Association (DPNCG) provided direct help and support for at least 100 journalist and reporters from main stream and local medias, and legal advices and trenings at least for 200 media workers. Our Association is open for advices and trainings also for colleagues who have not formally signed the application form, because we are obliged to be in solidarity.
Legal advices are requested on intellectual property rights in the field of publishing, free access to information, labor-related legal advices, in the criminal proceeding against the perpetrators, the judicial verdicts, cases of the police interrogation to reveal the source of information, irregularities in the work of the public broadcaster, about on line harassment etc.
Our lawyers obtained a judgment for damages in favor of journalists before the Basic Court in Kotor due to insults he was exposed.
The same Court ruled in favor of the editor, who was verbally attacked and threatened.
Before the Basic Court in Podgorica, we obtained a conviction for a person who insulted and attacked the editor of a media outlet. In another case, we overturned the dismissal of a colleague, but the judgment has not received a legally binding epilogue for years.
An appeal procedure is ongoing before the High Court in Bijelo Polje due to the low criminal sentence for the attackers of the editor of the Public Service.
We are expecting the start of the trial on two more courts, in proceedings led by our colleagues, in which they are represented by lawyers hired by the DPNCG.
Legal support for journalists is important because newsrooms generally do not offer it to employees, even when they are targeted for doing their jobs.
Here are some links about this activities:
https://en.vijesti.me/tag/17412/association-of-professional-journalists-of-Montenegro
Psychological support
Psihological assistance was established in 2019th , thrue the project of The European endowment for democracy (EED). Journalists need support to ensure their psychological safety. Many journalists are not aware of the risks to their emotional well-being, even though they are routinely exposed to emotional distress and vulnerable to secondary trauma. (https://dpncg.com/images/pdf/PsiholoskaPomoc.pdf).
This was an innovative approach and the first type of such support for journalists in the Western Balkans. We recognized the need for psychological support based on our own examples of long-term work in newsrooms due to the accumulation of stress, pressure../
Based on the testimony of colleagues who were victims of serious attacks and intimidation,we recognized the need to hire psychologists and psychotherapists.
In last period we have organized about 50 psihological therapies for about 1000 participians. But at least we are talking about 100 same journalists, who attended group therapies several times. The psychologist on the trainings were covered several topics including story telling; fear mechanisms and anxiety; effective communication; coping strategy and individual exercises.
An inonovatine approach was psychodramas are a group method based on stage expression with the use of dramatic techniques and group dynamics. Memories of past events, unfinished life situations, inner fantasies, as well as preparations for future life and bussines situations are played out on stage.
When it comes to the psihological aid to journalists, we have provided individual sessions with the psyhologist, each lasting for 60 minutes. Most of the users of psychological support are female journalists, and most of them are from televisions / private and state (RTCG) or local public services. And, the number of requests for psychological support is growing. Please be informed that the number of journalists requests for psychological support has doubled this year (https://dpncg.com/aktuelnosti/vijesti/604-sve-vise-zahtjeva-novinarki-za-psiholoskom-podrskom).
While last year the psychologist of the Association of Professional Journalists (DPNCG) recorded 40 individual sessions for journalists, that number has drastically increased, reaching 50 in the first six months of this year.
The users (and submitters of new requests for support) are mostly female journalists who are most often the target of gender-based insults and intimidation because they write about organized crime and corruption, or those who are exposed to various pressures and sexual harassment in the workplace.
In the previous period, we conducted research on the departure of female journalists in the media https://dpncg.com/images/dokumenta/POLOZAJNOVINARKIUCRNOGORSKIMMEDIJIMA.pdf) and we are trying to find financial support for a random analysis in the following period.
The other activities
The Association have The network of female journalist (https://en.vijesti.me/news-b/society/607099/a-network-of-female-journalists-of-Montenegro-was-founded).
We have developed website of the Commission for Monitoring Investigations of Attacks on Journalists and broshures as toolkit for support to journalists (https://dpncg.com/aktuelnosti/istrazivanja).
Their current website of the Commission for Monitoring Investigations of Attacks on Journalists is not well structured, visible and accessible since it is as sub-website of the Government of Montenegro. In order to increase its visibility and make more accessible with clear structure Association and project partners were (in cooperation with Commission) develop website for Commission. It is verry important that in this way is possible online submission informations regarding threats, attacks and murders of journalists. (https://komisija.me/prijavite).
We hope that it will help in making progress in unsolved crimes, especially the murder of Duško Jovanović - for which the Ministry of Internal Affairs has offered a million euros as a reward to whoever provides relevant information about the perpetrator and the person who commissioned the murder.
The Assoation has organized a lot of trenings, panel and workshops for the journalist with the intention to build capacities of Montenegrin journalists.
The workshop was dedicated to the protection of journalists’ sources, standards of the Council of Europe, ECtHR caselaw and European practice. Then about presumption of innocence in media reports, gender and equality, how to report on organized crime and corruption, copyright protection and reporters…
Some workshops was facilitated by Mr. Jonathan Price, CoE consultant, Mr. Mark Gruber, CoE consultant, with the support of Mr. Sinisa Gazivoda, local CoE expert.
Some workshop was dedicated to hate speech against the journalism, and led by foreign experts Flutura Kusari and Mattheew Caruana Galizia.
DPNCG has been appointed to Government’s Working Group for the development of the Media Strategy 2022 – 2026 with the Action Plan.
For the Association/ DPNCG,
Secretary General Mila Radulović
Podgorica, 24.09.2024.
