The country does not have a strategy to resist hybrid threats, although its officials have been pointing out this danger in recent months, which is why journalists were also arrested at the beginning of this year.
The US Embassy in Podgorica told "Vijesti" that they "fully recognize the state's responsibility for preserving public order and understand the danger of fake news and the destabilizing damage that misinformation can cause."
"At the same time, we firmly support media freedom as a fundamental democratic value that must be preserved and is crucially important for Montenegro's Euro-Atlantic path. We will continue to closely monitor the development of events related to the media in Montenegro, with a call to all journalists to adhere to the highest professional standards in their reporting", said the Embassy.
Yesterday, the Government did not answer the question of "Vijesti" whether there is a strategy to fight against hybrid war. In November of last year, they said that a special document that will deal with this problem is being drafted.
Cvijetin Milivojević, a political analyst from Belgrade, told "Vijesti" that the atmosphere of hybrid war is being created in the coordination of the presidents of Montenegro and Serbia: "Hybrid war comes as a kind of euphemism in relation to what we are seeing, which from the point of view of mass communication is naked propaganda in which you have no scruple to accuse people of anything and everything," said Milivojević.
Three journalists were arrested and suspected of spreading panic in the last few days, and their writing from state institutions was brought into a negative context with the reporting of media from Serbia, which transmitted that information.
Two days ago, the Ministry of Culture announced that Montenegro was facing an "unprecedented campaign of spreading disinformation, which culminated after the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Religion". In response, the ruling DPS supported state authorities "to resist any kind of attempt to disrupt stability and endanger the freedoms and rights of citizens to be timely, accurately and truthfully informed."
Hybrid threats are mentioned in the National Security Strategy as a new form of modern warfare: "Hybrid threats, through all the forms and specific mechanisms of soft power, represent a new form of modern warfare. The complex mechanisms of hybrid action, which can include strong propaganda, cyber attacks, the formation of para-institutions, organizations and media, and more and more often interference in election processes, impose the need to build and improve capacities to oppose and strengthen resistance to this security challenge. Given that Montenegro was also under attack from these activities, as well as that such trends are also present in other member states of the Alliance, the priority is to build adequate defense mechanisms at all levels of society, especially in the security and defense sector, in in accordance with the standards applied within the collective security system", the Strategy states.
Criminologist and former dean of the Faculty of Law Velimir Rakočević believes that Montenegro has not sufficiently mobilized all social resources, and these synchronized attacks on the greatest values of society require the defensive engagement of all potentials.
He states that Montenegro has adopted the National Security Strategy and the Defense Strategy and in that way has normatively rounded off this area.
"I think that these strategic documents need to be refined in relation to the increasingly frequent new forms of hybrid threats. Our defense system against these threats must be significantly more resilient in order not to lead to national vulnerability. "Intelligence activities must be significantly more effective in terms of early warning and prevention of incriminating activities," said Rakočević to "Vijesta".
MPs are silent on resisting hybrid threats
Yesterday, "VIjesti" contacted several current and former MPs, members of the Parliamentary Security Committee, who were not ready to say how the state should fight hybrid threats, whether a special strategy is needed or whether it can make random arrests.
Yesterday, at a meeting with the ambassadors of EU and NATO member states and the head of the Union Delegation in Podgorica, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Srđan Darmanović, pointed out that Montenegro is aware of hybrid threats and, as a NATO member, is obliged to oppose them.
As reported, he called for cooperation with the EU and NATO in order to strengthen resistance to challenges coming from third parties.
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