Montenegro transparency crisis as information requests and lawsuits surge

An analysis by the Center for Civic Education (CGO) reveals a significant decline in transparency and the right to information in Montenegro between 2020 and 2025. The report highlights a growing trend of institutional silence, where government bodies fail to respond to public information requests, leading to a massive backlog of cases.

Requests to authorities increased from 4,805 in 2020 to 7,481 in 2025. The Agency for Protection of Personal Data and Free Access to Information (AZLP) has seen its backlog of unresolved appeals surge from 90 at the end of 2020 to 2,768 by the end of 2025. In 2024, 69% of upheld appeals were due to authorities failing to respond at all, a trend that continued into 2025.

This administrative inaction has placed a heavy burden on the legal system. The number of lawsuits filed reached 8,382 in 2023, nearly nine times the amount recorded in 2020. CGO notes that while the volume of legal challenges is rising, inspection oversight remains disproportionately low, with only 133 inspections conducted in 2025.