Director of the Media Directorate Neđeljko Rudović believes that it used to be simpler, and today we have portals and 400.000 potential media outlets.
"Every citizen of Montenegro, if they want to, and we see that they do, can be a media person. In such circumstances, it is necessary to find the right way to protect ourselves as a society from harmful influences and destabilization that is easily possible if we turn a blind eye to what is happening to us," said Rudović, who moderated the panel "The Path to Protecting Society from Disinformation."
Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences Jovana Davidović Vuletić emphasized that different steps in the fight against disinformation must be taken in parallel.
"There is a struggle on a personal level, not to create content that is misleading, and the other is a systemic level that can be preventive and reactive. Preventive through the lifelong education system. And reactive through the normative framework. At the same time, an important preventive mechanism is the conditions in which journalists work in Montenegro, if we are talking about disinformation in media content. An important factor is financial independence, in which respect the situation in Montenegro is not good, we have quite unbalanced financing," said Vuletić.
She added that Europe's recommendation is not to criminalize disinformation because it also poses a threat to freedom of expression.
Montenegro, she said, must take care of foreign influence, which does not necessarily have to be negative, but does not contribute to either external or internal pluralism.
The director of the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services (AMU), Sunčica Bakić, says that the problem with disinformation in the country is multi-level and multi-faceted.
"The EU mechanisms and regulations, which are by far the most advanced at the global level, are fundamentally based on dealing with the problem from the aspect of protecting minors, consumers, and the market, but in the Balkans, the problem of disinformation is precisely the violation of democratic principles, social cohesion, incitement to hatred, division, and we have to deal with it in a slightly different way than EU countries do. Media literacy is a great mechanism, but we cannot deal with all types of disinformation in all conditions and in all ways," said Bakić.
The Head of the PR Service of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, Dragana Maljević, said that, after the amendments to the Criminal Code of Montenegro in December 2023, there is no explicit mention of fake news in it, but that they have an obligation to prosecute those who spread panic, especially through the media.
"I think that what Sunčica and Jovana mentioned, defining what is illegal content, what which institution should do in which situations, would help society. Let's create a common front, institutions and the civil sector, to see what is applicable and what will contribute to having a society where we will all be responsible for what we do on a private and institutional level," said Maljević.
She explained that it is difficult to prosecute those who spread fake news and disinformation via social media.
"State prosecutors find it very difficult to work and determine responsibility when it comes to networks, especially when it comes to fake profiles. It's a long process. If it is determined that a person living in Australia is behind a fake profile, the prosecutor cannot knock on the door, measures, actions and procedures must first be completed and are often very slow... Even if it is determined that the IP address is in Australia, it is not possible to determine who the specific person is," said Maljević.
Answering the question of how to reach an agreement with large online platforms, Davidović Vuletić says that the solution is the Digital Services Act.
"The complex challenge is global. The shutdown of fact-checkers on Facebook applies to the US, and it could also happen in Europe. Meta now has contracts with fact-checking organizations that can check content based on reports. The future solution for Montenegro is the Digital Services Act. It is quite liberal when it comes to what is illegal, but it is strict in what will be done if these platforms do not comply with the rules of the act. These measures include financial penalties, content withdrawals, and even temporary suspension of content on networks. These are the only mechanisms in the legal sense that Montenegro will adapt to in the coming period."
Bakić reiterated that we do not have a definition of disinformation, which limits institutions.
She explained that Montenegro is exposed to three disinformation mechanisms at all times.
"One group is of the internal type, mostly created by political actors. They are not cohesive because everyone is fighting for their own interests, but they are dangerous because they spread quite quickly on networks. The second group seems to me to be the most dangerous, there are more actors, both internal and foreign, and they use the division of Montenegro on several grounds and advocate divisions. These are the most dangerous mechanisms for society because there are more subjects who achieve synergy and do not have to be connected. The third group are foreign actors, we can influence them the least and they are the result of broader geopolitical processes," Bakić stated.
Bonus video:
