Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica submitted a request to the Court for Misdemeanors to initiate misdemeanor proceedings against Adria TV and its responsible editor. The procedure was initiated due to violation of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, "Vijesti" reports.
The High Prosecutor's Office explained that the reason for this reaction was the broadcast of a documentary called "Srebrenica - anatomy of deception". This controversial documentary is a project of the Novi Sad Center for Social Stability, an organization close to the Serbian Progressive Party (Social Media).
The Agency for Audiovisual Media Services of Montenegro (AMU) previously determined that the mentioned content justifies hate speech and encourages discrimination, for which reason it has already fined this television company.
Continuity of dangerous narratives and historical revisionism
This is not the first time that the same actors are targeted by Montenegrin regulatory bodies. Previously, at the end of May, another "documentary" project of the same Novi Sad organization resonated with the public - the film "Referendum - the story of fictional freedom", made on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the referendum on Montenegrin independence.
This film was broadcast in two parts on Montenegrin televisions with national frequency (TV Prva and TV Adria), as well as on several channels in Serbia (Informer, B92 and Dokumentarna TV). As the media reported at the time, the film abounds in historical revisionism, dangerous narratives and open Greater Serbian nationalism.
In it, among other things, Montenegro is openly threatened with messages that the authorities are "coming back" and that "they have only just begun". Among other things, the film claims that "the time is ripe for a new re-examination of the will of citizens or for the institutional association of territories where those who see their future together, not separately, live."
In the same material, bizarre accusations were made against Cetinje, with the claim that "the biggest demographic explosion after the Second World War" was recorded in that city because the families there were "guarded by Italian soldiers", while the people of Cetinje died on the battlefields all over Yugoslavia.
Maximum fines and bans for broadcasters
Due to this continuous broadcasting of content that insults the dignity of the Montenegrin people, denies the Montenegrin national identity, encourages hate speech and disputes the legitimacy of the modern constitutional arrangement of the state, the AMU Council made a decision on May 25 to temporarily limit the rebroadcast of the entire Informer TV program for a period of six months, write "Vijesti".
Soon after that, the AMU ex officio initiated proceedings against the Montenegrin broadcasters TV Adria and TV Prva. At the beginning of June, the Agency issued a decision imposing maximum fines of 10.000 euros on these two television stations for broadcasting a film about the referendum.
The latest request by the Prosecutor's Office to initiate misdemeanor proceedings for the film about Srebrenica is a continuation of the legal epilogue and an attempt by the institutions to defend themselves against media content that targets national and religious minorities and destabilizes inter-ethnic relations in the country.
Informer: "An attack on Serbia and our president"
Editor-in-Chief Dragan J. Vučićević, commenting on the decision of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, said that it represented another attack on Serbia and its President Aleksandar Vučić.
While Vučićević criticized the decision of the Montenegrin institution, the headline was: "Joint campaign of Montenegro and Croatia against Serbia".
In spite of all that, "TV Informer will play the first and second parts of the film 'Srebrenica – Anatomy of Deception' today and tomorrow," said Vučićević.
The director of Adria TV doo in Montenegro is Miljan Žugić, who is also the president of the Partizan handball club.
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