Action for Human Rights (HRA) appealed that people not be sent to prison for inaccurate posts on the Facebook social network, which, as HRA announced, do not call for violence and do not constitute hate speech.
"It is an excessive restriction of freedom of expression contrary to European human rights standards. Fear of prison prevents people from communicating, receiving and communicating information and ideas and creates an atmosphere of a police state. The state should provide accurate information through daily press conferences of competent government representatives, instead of arresting citizens because of what they write on their personal profiles on social networks. Every public official can easily secure the attention of the wider public, unlike anonymous citizens," HRA announced.
They added that the state should not instill trust through arrests and criminal sanctions, but through the open approach of its officials and the regular publication of detailed information.
"The practice of arrests due to inaccurate personal announcements about the coronavirus epidemic was applied only by Asian countries (China, Iran, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Pakistan), known for systematic violations of human rights. Yesterday, the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica ordered Milivoj Brković to be detained for 72 hours who wrote incorrect information on Facebook that 13 people in Montenegro are infected with the coronavirus," the HRA statement concluded.
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