The Society of Professional Journalists (DPNCG) has sent an Initiative to the Ministry of Justice, aiming to toughen penalties for verbal and physical violence against female journalists, but also all women who do work of public interest and as such are in the public eye and exposed to inappropriate hatred and aggression.
"We believe that toughening penalties would eventually affect the prevention of violence, especially expressed in the online space, which is most often gender-based. Given the Ministry's announcement that amendments to the Criminal Code of Montenegro will recognize hate speech as a criminal offense, we believe that the Ministry will respect our Initiative. We proposed introducing a new paragraph in the article that treats serious hate speech in the Draft Amendments to the Criminal Code, which would treat the qualified form of this criminal offense in relation to persons performing work of public importance," the DPNCG announced.
They add that given that the Ministry of Justice has defined the criminal offense of "serious hate speech" in Article 370a, they proposed adding paragraph 2 of that article, which would prescribe a qualified form of the criminal offense of hate speech with a more severe prescribed criminal sanction, if the criminal offense of serious hate speech is committed against a group or a member of a group based on belonging to a professional activity of public importance.
"Article 370a states: 'Whoever expresses hatred towards a group or a member of a group determined on the basis of national and ethnic affiliation, race or religion, citizenship, sex, language, skin colour, origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability, or due to political or other convictions, or any other personal characteristic, in a manner that may lead to violence or incite hatred towards a group of persons or a member of such a group shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of three months to three years.'"
They recalled that until now, hate speech has been treated as a misdemeanor.
"The reason for our initiative is the increasing incidence of gender-based violence against female journalists, whose rights we protect as a professional association. Also, considering that freedom of expression is one of our priority goals, we believe that greater protection in this context should be enjoyed by female MPs and civil activists, who, due to their public advocacy and speech, are the target of misogynistic comments that turn into verbal violence, with the danger of it escalating into physical violence. The DPNCG's research 'Safety of Journalists and Media' showed that out of 26 cases filed in the State Prosecutor's Office in the last two years, 14 relate to female journalists. Data from misdemeanor courts show that they have 11 proceedings pending before them, 8 of which concern female journalists, and three final misdemeanor verdicts have been issued concerning attacks and threats against journalists, two of which concern female journalists," it was announced.
They add that data from the Police Administration, submitted to the DPNCG, show that out of 17 registered events in 2024, 10 also related to female journalists, and out of 20 in 2025 (as of October 20), 13 concerned female journalists.
"Montenegro, as a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), is obliged to respect its conventions, including the Istanbul Convention. The CoE Recommendation on Preventing and Combating Sexism CM/REC (2019) defines sexism as 'any act, gesture, visual representation, spoken or written words, practice or conduct based on the idea that a person or group of persons is inferior because of their sex, which occurs in the public or private sphere, whether online or offline, with the aim or purpose of, among other things, violating their dignity and establishing and maintaining a system of gender stereotypes'. When it comes to female journalists, the aim is to intimidate them into stopping their research and reporting, and to silence female MPs and civil activists," the statement reads.
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