Boban BATRIĆEVIĆ

In March 2024, a court in Podgorica dropped all charges and dismissed the case against academic, writer, and vice president of the Montenegrin PEN Centre Boban Batrićević. Batrićević had faced up to 60 days in prison or a fine under Article 19 of Montenegro’s National Law on Public Order and Peace, which prohibits national, racial, or religious insults, for an August 2023 article he wrote on the independent Montenegrin portal Antena M about hateful narratives spread by the Serbian Orthodox church in Montenegro (see Case List 2023/2024). 

Batrićević’s statement and his ensuing prosecution came against the backdrop of a controversial population census, eventually begun on 3 December 2023 after several delays, which opposition parties had threatened to boycott over fears pro-Russian forces, including the Serbian Orthodox Church, would spread propaganda and inflate the numbers of people identifying as Serbian. Batrićević’s trial opened at the Misdemeanour Court in Podgorica on 22 January 2024 amidst a national outcry. The case was subsequently dismissed on 26 March 2024.  

Boban Batrićević, born in 1988, is a prominent historian, civil society activist, and professor at the Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature in Cetinje, in the southwest of Montenegro, who specialises in the history of propaganda and totalitarian movements, as well as cultural identity theory. He was elected vice president of the Montenegrin PEN Centre in 2022.