Good morning! Fierce reactions to BIRN’s mapping of the extreme right and extremism in Montenegroꓼ We are Numerous protest repeatedꓼ pressure on DPS for the Constitutional Court to be elected.
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“Extremists” Strike Back
Yesterday was marked by sharp reactions to BIRN’s mapping of extremism and the extreme right in the region. Civil society, public figures, political parties, and experts in the field of extremism research reacted and criticized the methodology, but also the facts, according to which BIRN’s researchers created the list of extremist organizations in Montenegro.
Some of the named and listed citizens also reacted. Sasa Zekovic contacted BIRN, made himself available to their researchers and shared with the public the information that the researchers took into account the perception of public opinion when they put people on the list. Professor Olivera Komar, owner of one of the most recognized research companies in Montenegro, asked Zekovic on Twitter which research the BIRN researchers referred to.
The target of special criticism and accusations of bias was researcher Jelena Jovanovic, a journalist from Vijesti, who presented the research at a conference in Sarajevo the day before yesterday. It was possible to conclude from Drasko Djuranovic’s article that journalists and BIRN’s editorial staff were shifting responsibility to each other yesterday. If Djuranovic’s article is to be believed, in the end everything at BIRN fell on the researcher, as if there was no audit and quality control of what was done. It is interesting that the Vijesti newspaper, Jovanovic’s parent company, did not overly enthusiastically present the research.
Vijesti TV, on the other hand, gave the platform to Jovanovic to “threaten” that the list was in the working version and that it would be expanded. Users of social networks, as well as some of those called out, found a video of the “hanging out” of the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in which Jovanovic is seen at a gathering where the chauvinist song “From Glava Zete to the City of Spuz” is sung. Journalist Tanja Pavicevic and activist Maja Milickovic reflected, among other things, on this moment in their guest appearance on Antena M radio with Darko Sukovic. Photos of Jovanovic with Prime Minister Abazovic were published on the networks, hinting that the motive of such a report was political.
Tanja Knezevic Perisic, a former journalist, correspondent for numerous domestic and foreign media, including Monitor, MontenaFax, BBC, Nasa Borba, RSE, and an activist once close to SDP, and now the leader of the Patriotic-Komitas Alliance, a party with a strong national character, whose name served as one of the designated extreme groups in the report, also reacted.
SDP and SD, the Media Institute of Montenegro, the Center for Civic Education and DFC also responded by criticizing BIRN.
Sarajevo director Dino Mustafic reacted to this as well. Bosnian-Herzegovinian journalist and CdM columnist Dragan Bursac also dedicated an entire column to the case.
This report was condemned by the regional authorities when it comes to the topics of extremism and the extreme right – Executive Director of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights from Serbia Izabela Kisic and professor at the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo Edina Becirevic.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s BIRN executive director Denis Dzidic responded to numerous reactions, promising that an independent assessment would be made, and that BIRN would take this situation seriously.
The question that arises is whether any of those people in Sarajevo and Belgrade realized how absurd and ridiculous the Montenegrin list looks, and how big a mark this will leave on BIRN’s credibility.
Another We are Numerous protest held in Podgorica
High DPS official Sasa Bogdanovic was the most active among the promoters of the We are Numerous protest yesterday, saying that the protests would be even more numerous if the demands were not met. A large number of citizens from different cities of Montenegro gathered in front of the Parliament of Montenegro. This is how it looked from the air.
Will the Constitutional Court become operational?
Will there be quorum, to be exact. The ruling majority and civil society are now putting a lot of pressure and spotlight on DPS. Yesterday, Vanja Calovic underlined the responsibility of DPS. Until the Constitutional Court is formed, there can be no declaration of election results in Podgorica, judging by the statements of the head of the local election commission.
That’s it for today and this week. See you again on Monday.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
