OSCE Mission to Montenegro strongly condemns personalized press attack on the Director of a Montenegrin civil society organisation

PODGORICA, 20 June 2014 – The OSCE Mission to Montenegro, strongly condemns the personalized and offensive attacks contained in recent reports by the Informer newspaper against Vanja Calovic, the Executive Director of the Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS).

The OSCE Mission regards the nature and style of the reporting as an effort to discredit Calovic, who has led the MANS NGO in bringing the issue of corruption onto the public agenda.

While the OSCE Mission supports freedom of the media and freedom of expression, professional standards of reporting and respect for journalistic ethics are also necessary.  This type of reporting characterized by such a personalized and highly offensive tone disrespects   those professional standards in the lowest form.

Such reporting makes the work of media self-regulation bodies’ all the more necessary in effectively addressing unprofessional media reporting and maintaining respect for the highest journalistic standards.” 

Through its work in supporting Montenegro to meets its OSCE commitments, the OSCE Mission will continue to promote freedom of the media and also respect for the highest standards of media reporting.