Montenegro: Charges against PEN member Boban Batrićević must be dropped
Update 28 March 2024: All charges against academic, writer, and Vice President of the Montenegrin PEN Centre Boban Batrićević were dropped. The case against him was dismissed. Representatives of Swedish PEN were notably in court with Batrićević on 26 March, when the decision was officially pronounced. For more information, please see Swedish PEN’s statement. Many thanks to all those who took action.
03 November 2023: The Montenegrin authorities should drop all charges against academic, writer, and Vice President of the Montenegrin PEN Centre Boban Batrićević, PEN International said today. Batrićević faces up to 60 days in prison for an article he wrote on the Serbian Orthodox church in Montenegro. His hearing has been set for 22 January 2024.
On 11 August 2023, Boban Batrićević published an article on the independent Montenegrin portal Antena M, in which he detailed examples of hateful narratives spread by priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, including the glorification of war criminals. A lawyer affiliated with the Church, which holds a significant following in Montenegro, filed a criminal complaint against Batrićević, accusing him of inciting religious hatred. The Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro subsequently initiated misdemeanour proceedings against Batrićević, accusing him of violating Article 19 of Montenegro’s National Law on Public Order and Peace, which prohibits national, racial, or religious insults and carries a fine ranging from €250 to €1,500, or imprisonment for up to 60 days.
‘PEN International stands with PEN member Boban Batrićević and calls for all charges against him to be dropped. His words cannot in any way be interpreted as religious insults. If anything, Batrićević called for an end to the very hateful speech he is being accused of spreading. Batrićević is clearly being targeted solely for peacefully expressing his views. The case against him must be dropped at once’, said Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.
Boban Batrićević’s statement and ensuing prosecution against him came against the backdrop of a controversial population census – originally planned for 1 November and now postponed to December – which opposition parties 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. Scores of organisations have spoken out in defence of Batrićević, including the Montenegrin PEN Centre, which stressed its full support for its Vice President, and urged the authorities to fully uphold the right to freedom of expression. The Lawyers Association of Montenegro notably offered him free legal assistance, highlighting the threats that his prosecution raises to the rights to freedom of thought and freedom of expression in the country.
Additional information
Boban Batrićević, 35, 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. Fellow PEN members have also been targeted by the Montenegrin authorities in recent years. On 19 August 2022, Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, publicly attacked the Montenegrin PEN Centre in Parliament, accusing it of spreading ‘extremism and nationalism’. Abazović notably showed a picture of the award-winning Montenegrin writer and member of the Montenegrin PEN Centre, Milorad Popović, labelling him an agent of nationalist politics who ‘serves the interests of crime.’ This was not the first time Abazović has publicly targeted members of the Montenegrin PEN Centre, having repeatedly smeared prominent Montenegrin writer and member of the Montenegrin PEN Centre, Andrej Nikolaidis. Batrićević, Popović and Nikolaidis are all vocal opponents of Russian and Serbian attempts to interfere in Montenegrin internal affairs.
An October 2023 report by PEN International, drafted in cooperation with PEN Bosnia and Herzegovina, PEN Kosovo, the Montenegrin PEN Centre, and Serbian PEN, documents how pro-Russian media in Montenegro regularly spread hate speech, inflame ethno-nationalist tensions, and often publicly target critics, independent intellectuals and pro-Western activists and politicians. The report quotes a 2022 European Parliament Resolution on foreign interference, which identified the Serbian Orthodox Church as a means to spread Russian influence in the Western Balkans region with a view to inflame conflicts and divide communities.
In September 2023, the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International adopted a Resolution on threats to freedom of expression, peace, and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, which specifically called on the authorities of Montenegro to immediately end the glorification of war criminals, revisionist narratives and hate speech, and to publicly, unequivocally, and systematically condemn all acts of violence and targeted attacks against writers, journalists, and activists.
For further details contact Aurélia Dondo, Head of Europe and Central Asia Region at PEN International: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org
