In Montenegro, as many as 80 percent of comments on online portals regarding the LGBTIQ community have a negative tone, which is why these topics should be treated responsibly in the media, from the perspective of human rights and freedoms, without sensationalism or the incitement of potential conflicts. This was stated by the project coordinator of the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), Andrea Rovčanin, during a guest appearance on the "Boje jutra" program on Television Vijesti. She discussed the results of the project "From Silence to Narrative: Representation of the LGBTIQ+ Community in Montenegrin Media (2011-2024)," conducted by CeMI, which pertains to media reporting on the LGBTIQ community from 2012 to 2024.
Rovčanin explained that the research included media articles and comments on three online portals in Montenegro: Vijesti, Analitika, and IN4S. "We primarily analyzed media articles, but what is particularly important to emphasize within those articles are the comments, because we are aware that through comments we can best see how the public reacts to certain topics," Rovčanin stated. According to her, this was a longitudinal analysis conducted using specialized software for automatic data collection, which analyzed comments based on pre-defined keywords related to LGBTIQ themes, such as "LGBT," "LGBTI," "pride parade," "pride," "same-sex union," and others.
Based on these terms, approximately 3,250 media articles were targeted, within which nearly 35,000 comments were recorded. Rovčanin clarified that human coders, previously trained for this type of analysis, manually coded 25 percent of the comments, after which that sample was used to train the machine learning part of the software, which then took over the automatic coding of the remaining comments. The research also measured the sentiment of the comments—whether they were positive, negative, or neutral—and comments were further classified into 18 themes.
As the CeMI representative highlighted, the results of the analysis show that the public in Montenegro is largely negatively oriented when commenting on LGBTIQ topics on portals. "The analysis generally showed that the public in Montenegro has a distinctly negative attitude when it comes to commenting on online portals about the LGBTIQ community. As many as 80 percent of such comments carry a negative tone," said Rovčanin. However, she emphasized that the type of negativity has changed over time. She explained that previously, comments more frequently contained open attacks, calls for violence, and direct denials of support for the LGBTIQ community, whereas today negative narratives are more often "packaged" into political and ideological themes, as well as subtler forms of speech.
"Negativity exists, it has only changed over time," she pointed out. Rovčanin also stated that the data showed significant differences across the years regarding the number of posts and comments on the analyzed portals. According to her, 2024 recorded a record low number of articles and comments—about 146 across all three portals—while 2013 saw an exceptionally high number of comments, which was expected as the first Pride Parade in Montenegro was organized then. High levels of commenting were also recorded during 2018 and 2019, when the Law on Same-Sex Partnership was in focus.
She particularly emphasized that in the last two years, an extremely low number of comments categorized as pro-LGBTIQ, or comments carrying open support, has been recorded. "Open talk about hate speech, attacks, and violence is becoming rarer, but open talk about support itself is also becoming rarer," said Rovčanin, noting that criticism is increasingly expressed through cynicism, mockery, invoking freedom of speech, and similar arguments. To illustrate the change in tone, she noted that in earlier years, comments like "they will not march" or "they must not march" were present, while today comments like "Why do the media and politicians promote the LGBTIQ community so much?" are more common.
Rovčanin stated that LGBTIQ topics in the media must be treated primarily from the perspective of human rights and freedoms, without sensationalism and without inciting conflict. Among the key recommendations, she highlighted the need to improve comment moderation, especially in the context of hate speech that increasingly appears in implicit and subtle forms, which are harder to recognize. She also stressed the importance of targeted training for journalists and media, particularly in the areas of information manipulation, hate speech, responsible targeting, and content moderation.
Rovčanin stated that a strategic response is also needed, involving the Government, the civil sector, institutions, and the media, to find not only legal but also practical mechanisms for fighting hate speech. Regarding CeMI's further activities, Rovčanin announced that a roundtable will be organized in the coming weeks where the results of the project and analysis will be presented. "We expect the media, institutions, and civil society organizations to lead a constructive conversation, a dialogue based on arguments rather than personal impressions," said Rovčanin.
She added that CeMI wants such research to become a practice in Montenegro and for a similar methodology to be applied to other social topics. She pointed out that during the previous decade in Montenegro, there was no systematic study showing how and with what tone Montenegrin media reported on LGBTIQ topics, making this research an important contribution for both the media and decision-makers.
This analysis was created within the project "From Silence to Narrative: Representation of LGBTIQ+ in Montenegrin Media (2011–2024)," implemented by CeMI and supported through the broader program "Together for LGBTIQ+ Equality," led by the Centre for Civic Education (CGO) in partnership with ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey, Queer Montenegro, Queer Center Skopje, Tuzla Open Center, Open Mind Spectrum Albania, and the Center for Social Group Development from Kosovo (CSGD). The project is funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Ministry of Regional-Investment Development and Cooperation with Non-Governmental Organizations.