Podgorica, (MINA) - The Media Trade Union of Montenegro (SMCG) has expressed concern that the attack on photojournalists Boris Pejovic and Stevo Vasiljevic in Gornji Zaostro near Berane has not received an appropriate judicial outcome, while the Media Council for Self-Regulation (MSS) has called on the Supreme State Prosecutor to review the systematic pattern in handling of attacks on journalists, and the Judicial Council to address the consistency in legal application in cases concerning media freedom.

“SMCG is concerned and disappointed that even more than half a year after the attack by a group of individuals on Pejovic and Vasiljevic in Gornji Zaostro near Berane, the case has not received an outcome that would correspond to the severity of that brutal attack, as well as the importance of media freedom and the public’s right to be informed”, the press release reads.

MSS said that they are worried about, as they stated, drastically different court outcomes in cases concerning the same event – the attack on Pejovic and Vasiljevic.

As they clarified, the Basic Court in Berane acquitted Danko Femic, despite finding that he had taken the cameras and demanded the deletion of the photos, while a day later it sentenced Nikola Raicevic and Milic Ralevic to six months of house arrest each for the same offense.

According to MSS, such legal inconsistency is not only a procedural failure, but may also undermine public trust in the judiciary and send the message that the protection of journalists depends on chance and not on the rule of law.