In journalistic circles, from generation to generation, the story of Javid Nimani, the president of SAP Kosovo and the uncle of the much more famous Zana Nimani, who in the early 80s, in an attempt to stop the publication of information about student demonstrations, uttered - stop that Reuters.
The government's reaction to the last report of "Fridom House" (FH) "Nations in Transition" according to which Montenegro fell from "semi-consolidated democracies" to the level of "hybrid regimes" is exactly reminiscent of that story, which has other, somewhat older versions.
In our case, stop or arrest that "Freedom House".
Montenegrin authorities tried in various ways to nullify the effect of this report - from adapting the translation, through the interpretation that Serbia, Hungary and Montenegro are victims due to the attitude of the US towards China's "insidious influence on the development and functioning of democratic institutions" in the 29 observed post-communist states. to contesting the objectivity of the author of that report.
But let's go in order.
Montenegro has been falling on the FH lists since 2016. In addition to this report, this influential American organization also publishes a list about freedom in 195 countries every year.
In 2016, Montenegro fell from free to the group of partially free countries.
The following year, Montenegro remained a "semi-consolidated" democracy, although the author of the report was the current mayor of Podgorica, Ivan Vuković. However, with an average score better by 0,04 compared to the 2016 report.
Quite simply, FH explains this, as in all other years - the ratings (state) reflect the consensus of FH, its academic advisors and the authors of the report, while the opinions expressed in the report are the authors' own.
Ivan Vuković or a few years earlier Draško Đuranović could decorate Montenegrin democracy, as Vuk Maraš and Ana Nenezić could beautify it this year, but the evaluations according to which Montenegro is in the group of "hybrid regimes" are far from being their only conclusion. .
But, when in the early 90s Emilo Labudović could call the reports of World Bank experts a "world gang", why can't his successor Andrija Nikolić now say that NGOs "recognized as opponents of the government, devoid of objectivity and measure in their criticisms" contributed to the opinion of the FH? , with the ominous addition that - they do not agree with some perceptions, but they take them into account.
Let's go back to the recent past, to 2018.
First, in February, the European Commission (EC) published a document with a vague name - "Credible perspective of enlargement and increased engagement of the EU in the Western Balkans".
It states that Montenegro and other countries of the Western Balkans show "clear elements of captive states, including links with organized crime and corruption at all levels of government and administration, as well as a strong connection between public and private interests." In short, captive states.
The FH in April and 2018 does not suffer from bureaucracy, like the EC.
"Aleksandar Vučić and Milo Đukanović captured their countries, turning them into mechanisms that serve to strengthen their parties".
Montenegro recorded a decline or stagnation in all last year's reports of international organizations.
It returned to the lists of "Reporters without Borders", which continued this year, "Transparency International", "Heritage Foundation", and the World Bank on the ease of doing business.
Finally, there is an informal balance clause in the negotiations with the EU through two negative informal documents on the situation in chapters 23 and 24, and the latest State Department report on the state of human rights in Montenegro.
Ivo Andrić wrote:
"Prolonged slavery and bad administration can so confuse and distort the understanding of a people that common sense and true judgment in it weakens and weakens, to the point of being completely distorted. Such a deranged people can no longer distinguish not only good from evil, but also their own benefit from obvious harm".
This year's FH report is just a continuation of the free fall of the Montenegrin government. Not until "Fridom House".
It is not the mirror's fault that the government is getting uglier.
Breaking the mirror is not a solution either.
You cut yourself easily, and they also say that it's bad.
Bonus video:
