The Podgorica-based NGO Prima stated at a briefing on Thursday in Podgorica that the Montenegrin parliament would soon be presented with criminal law reforms that entail stiffer punishment for revenge porn, Balkan Insight reported.
Prima’s member Aida Perovic urged the authorities to take the issue of revenge pornography seriously.
“Revenge porn” is defined by the UK government as “the distribution of private, sexually explicit images or films of another person without that person’s consent and with the intention of causing that person humiliation or distress.”
Suppose anyone shares a video, picture, audio recording, or file with sexually explicit information without the subject’s consent. In that case, they might face up to two years in prison, according to the proposed Criminal Law revisions. If the crime was committed online, a three-year jail term is possible.
A jail sentence of up to four years, or five years if the offense is done online, is anticipated under recent law modifications if an official commits this violation. The changes to the law state that explicit materials and referred gadgets will also be seized.
According to existing criminal law, anyone who distributes private audio or video information without the subject’s consent risk up to a year in prison. If an official person is found guilty of the crime, they might face jail for three months to three years.
“The penalties should be as high as possible, so they should be prison sentences. It would also be preventive; the perpetrators would not easily repeat the crime and the potential perpetrators would be aware of the possible consequences if they commit the crime,” state prosecutor Biljana Pavlicic said, as cited by Balkan Insight.
Since there is no particular legislation in the Balkans that targets revenge porn, other crimes, including the unlawful taking or publication of images, are frequently used to handle the offense. But in Bosnia, Serbia, and Montenegro, public prosecutors are not involved in such cases. Instead, they must be presented by means of individual court-filed complaints. It is the victim’s responsibility to adduce evidence.
Early in 2021, after it was discovered that tens of thousands of individuals were trading images and videos of women and girls without their permission on at least three Telegram messaging groups, revenge porn became a major topic of discussion in the Balkans.
BIRN was able to get statistics from October 2021 showing that between 2016 and 2020, 263 accusations of unauthorized photo or video sharing were made in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia, leading to 35 convictions. It is unclear how many of those were directly about revenge porn.
