Allied Intelligence — 2026-06-23

Montenegro National Security Agency Head Files Criminal Complaint Against Two Reporters for Disclosing Classified Information

BLUFFormal charges against the two CIN-CG reporters are unlikely within twelve months; the complaint's operative function is to chill ANB insider sourcing during an active EU accession window.

ANB Director Ivica Janović filed criminal complaints against CIN-CG journalists Andrea Perišić and Đurđa Radulović over their article on agency recruitment practices and the alleged employment of officials who failed security vetting 12. The complaint invokes Montenegro's classified-information statute carrying one to eight years imprisonment; Balkan Insight and the SafeJournalists Network report police questioned both journalists and pressed them to identify their sources 13. Human Rights Action called on the parliamentary Security and Defence Committee, the Ombudsperson, and the Supreme State Prosecutor to investigate the CIN-CG allegations and a separate ANB employee complaint alleging illegal staff surveillance by agency management 2. The SafeJournalists Network and Montenegro's Institute for Media called on prosecutors to dismiss the case, citing ECHR source-protection standards 14.

Analysis
The complaint against Perišić and Radulović functions as a source-identification mechanism rather than a prosecution strategy. Formal charges are unlikely within the next twelve months: filing carries high political cost while Montenegro is closing EU accession chapters, and ECHR source-protection doctrine gives the Prosecutor's Office conventional grounds for dismissal. Moderate confidence rests on the absence of comparable successful prosecution in post-2020 Montenegro and convergent civil society and European media freedom pressure. The complaint may instead rest on a genuine security assessment that the article disclosed operational intelligence rather than administrative misconduct, which would reframe source-disclosure pressure as legitimate prosecutorial interest under Montenegrin law. Whether charges are filed or dismissed determines if EU accession monitors must formally flag Montenegro on Chapter 23 press freedom benchmarks. Dismissal leaves the source-identification objective uncontested with the chilling effect already accomplished.

4 sources

SafeJournalists: Strongest Condemnation of Criminal Complaint Filed by Montenegro's National Security Agency Director Against Investigative Journalists - SafeJournalists / Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia
Support for CIN-CG Journalists: Call for Urgent Oversight of the ANB - Human Rights Action (HRA)
Montenegro Spy Agency Criticised for Criminal Complaint Against Reporters - Balkan Insight
Tužilaštvo da hitno odbaci prijavu protiv novinarki CIN-CG-a - ETV Portal