An annoying journalist

According to the State Prosecutor's Office of Montenegro, Jovo Martinović is a member of a drug gang. He himself says that his journalistic research led him to the underground. With his research on the alleged trafficking of human organs by KLA guerrillas, Jovo Martinović set off an avalanche.

Jovo Martinović is responsible for one of the biggest and consequences of very difficult exclusives in recent years: the discovery of the alleged trade of Albanian guerrillas in the human organs of kidnapped Serbian civilians rests mainly on the research of this Montenegrin journalist, which caused the prosecution of accused members of the Kosovo elite. The Special Court in The Hague will deal with them.

Helper from the shadows

During research on Serbian war crimes against the Albanian population in the summer of 1999, Martinović came across instructions that the Kosovo-Albanian KLA guerrillas had been organizing the trade in human organs since June 1999. Martinović's employer at that moment is called Michael Montgomery, an American journalist. Since a lot of things in the story about human organ trafficking could not be proven, Montogmeri, as he explained in an interview with the press a year ago in Belgrade, gave up publishing it. The collected material was handed over to the Hague war crimes tribunal in 2003.

The accusations were published only in 2008, in the biography of Carla del Ponte, the head of the Hague Prosecutor's Office, and two years later this led to a spectacular report by Dick Marty, the Swiss reporter of the Council of Europe, on the topic of the connection of the Kosovo elite with organized crime. At the beginning of next year, the Special Court in The Hague will thoroughly deal with these accusations against the KLA.

And all this was initiated by Martinović with his research for Montgomery.

The American became famous with this story and won awards for it. Martinović, as an assistant (fixer or stringer in journalistic jargon), who did the lion's share of the work, remained in the shadows. But without him, this research would be simply impossible. His intimate knowledge of the region, obtaining information as well as interviews in his native language were the basic prerequisites for success. In April of this year, Montgomery stated that he did not publish Martinović's name as a co-author out of fear for his safety. Therefore, almost no one knows Jov's name in the West, and neither does the audience interested in the Balkans.

In the underground

The Montenegrin police arrested Jova Martinović on October 22, 2015. The special prosecutor for organized crime, Mira Samardžić, accuses him of being a member of a criminal group and dealing in drug trafficking. Since that happened, many of his former employers have come forward and advocated for Martinović's release. These are all journalists from the world's leading media such as "Economist", National Public Radio (USA), "Financial Times", "Newsweek", etc., who testify to Martinović's personal integrity and his high professional standards. Their argument is that contacts with the underground, when dealing with certain topics, are a mandatory part of the work schedule of every investigative journalist.

It is not without irony that it was only after Montenegro arrested him that it became known what and with what this stringer charged all Western journalists. Martinović's role was decisive in the journalistic revelations of serious Serbian and Kosovo war crimes. But his authorship in discoveries was always cited sporadically, if at all. This almost colonial relationship between Western journalists and their local colleagues, who are real co-authors, is a simple rule of office, and Westerners usually thank the Stingers for their decisive cooperation with a fee.

It is open whether this status seduced Martivnović to engage in increasingly risky research methods. As an open question, is he - legally speaking - guilty of anything at all. What prompted local and international journalistic associations to protest was the fact that Jovo Martinović has been in a Montenegrin remand prison for almost a year, and there is no indication of a possible date for the opening of the process against him. The European Federation of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists therefore demanded in their letter of September 2 that Martinović be allowed to defend himself from freedom.

The Government of Montenegro has taken the position that what Martinović is accused of has nothing to do with journalism: it will now intensify its fight against organized crime and corruption.

Hashish and Kalashnikov

According to the indictment, in 2015, Martinović was in contact with members of a Montenegrin-Croatian-Dutch group of drug smugglers, and that he was the head of that group, Duško Martinović (who is not related to him), otherwise a former member of the Pink Panther burglary gang, in Ulcinj organized the trade of 20 kg of hashish. In addition, it is written in the indictment, this Duško installed an application for internet calling on his mobile phone, which allegedly cannot be eavesdropped.

At the time of his arrest, Jovo Martinović was working for the French agency Capa Presse on a film about arms smuggling. This film, entitled "La route de la kalashnikov", was shown on Canal Plus in France in January. In 2013, Jovo Martinović worked for the same company as a co-producer on the film about the Diamond Pink Panthers. And that's how he met the aforementioned Duško Martinović. This second Martinović now claims that the Montenegrin State Prosecutor's Office promised him a reduction of his sentence only if he accuses Jova Martinović against the truth. The indictment against Jov Martinović was filed in April. An investigation is still ongoing, which should shed light on his finances.

The former correspondent of Radio Switzerland SRF, Walter Müller, who worked together with Martinović on several researches in Montenegro since 2001, describes Jova as a competent, well-networked journalist, modest in his appearance, but very proud of his wide connections, which reach from the top of Montenegrin politics to circles of arms, women and drug dealers. Walter Müller rejects any possibility that Martinović could have engaged in illegal machinations to get the money.

Đukanović's image problem

It is no secret that the political elite of Montenegro was not happy with the success of Martinović's research. It is thanks to journalists like Martinović that Montenegro is not only described in the western media as a "wild beauty", as tourist brochures praise it, but as a hotbed of corruption and nepotism. Montenegro therefore has an image problem.

Andreas ERNST

Neuer Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ)

Translation: Mirko VULETIĆ