“Esteemed representatives of the public word,

Freedom of media is a condition for democracy and its lifeline. We live in a time when the journalistic profession is under various pressures, and the dignity of journalists is threatened.

The society must be aware of the importance of your calling, and all of us together must create conditions for you to live decently from your work, with freedom to investigate and write, and with protection. Only with a serious approach by the state, which has the obligation to create environment in which media professionalism is affirmed and valued, and with your contribution through quality, objectivity and desire to give the public their right to know, we will know that we are moving in the right direction.

May today’s World Press Freedom Day be an incentive and a warning both for you and for the state that together we must find sustainable solutions which would strengthen dignity and security of the journalistic calling. Today the “factories of untruths” are stronger than in the 90’s, therefore we need to have defence from the outside, from those who defile the traditional morality of Montenegrin citizens.

On behalf of the Parliament of Montenegro and my own behalf, I wish you a happy  World Press Freedom Day.”

Ranko Krivokapić