Internet & Online Safety - Montenegro

The 2024 Law on Audiovisual Media Services (Official Gazette 54/24) harmonised national law with EU Directive 2018/1808, which extends regulation to video-sharing platforms; the regulator was renamed the Agency for Audiovisual Media Services (AMU), an independent body with a five-member Council.

The new Media Law (54/24, in force 19 June 2024) obliges media to remove hate speech and other problematic content in line with international practice and introduced sanctions to curb unregistered online media outlets.

As an EU candidate, Montenegro is required to align with the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, NIS2 and GDPR; Chapter 10 (information society and media) was provisionally closed in December 2024 with Montenegro assessed as broadly aligned on information-society services, but DSA-style horizontal platform-liability rules are not yet in domestic force.

Montenegro has no national online age-verification or minor-protection statute equivalent to recent EU/UK measures; such obligations would arrive via DSA transposition (the European Commission's July 2025 DSA minors guidelines and 2026 EU age-verification app being the reference framework).

The constitution guarantees free expression and Montenegro is not a censorship state, but authorities apply criminal/misdemeanour provisions on hate-incitement and security threats to social-media posts inconsistently — 637 reported social-media offences (546 misdemeanour, 91 criminal) between 2020 and May 2025 — leaving limits on online speech unclear.

Reviews found no evidence of systematic state-driven content takedowns, but very large online platforms provide little Montenegro-specific transparency data, and the 2025 EU and rule-of-law assessments flag continuing pressures on media freedom alongside the reform process.