The Basic State Prosecutor's Office (ODT) of Pljevlja has filed a case against the first man of that municipality. Daria Vraneš (New Serbian Democracy) for his offensive comment last week about the executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG) Milke Tadić MijovićShe gave a statement to the police yesterday on this occasion, while Vranes did so on Friday.
As reported to "Vijesti" from the ODT Pljevlja, the head of that institution Sanja Golubovic She gave a verbal order to the police to collect information from Tadić Mijović and Vraneš, after which she would decide whether his message contained elements for criminal prosecution or a misdemeanor.
Vraneš is commenting on Tadić Mijović's statement to "Vijesti" about his latest nationalistic outburst last week on Instagram, quoting Njegosha, and with a few smileys, he wrote: "Tell me, grandma, are you a witch? I am, prince, there's no point in hiding it."
Tadić Mijović stated in a statement given to the Podgorica Security Department that Vraneš's post on Instagram referred to an article published in "Vijesti" under the title "New nationalist provocations by Dario Vraneš".
"In that text, I commented on Mr. Vranes' nationalist views, emphasizing that I hope that our children have learned the lessons of the past and that they will not follow Vranes to Prizren, but to Europe," she told the police, adding that she had expressed similar views in the show "Načisto" on TV Vijesti, because "in her decades of journalistic and public engagement, she has been against all kinds of nationalism."
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She said that Vranes's comment on Instagram reminded her of the darkest times of the 1990s, but also of the 2000s, when she and many of her colleagues were exposed to insults, attacks and pressure due to anti-nationalist politics, but also because of the positions in the texts in which they spoke about problems of the rule of law, corruption and crime.
Tadić Mijović points out that Vraneš's comment sparked a barrage of the most brutal comments against her on various internet portals, in which, she notes, they called her the most derogatory names and accused her of the most terrible things. Among other things, that she worked for foreign services, that she "danced on tables at (Mila) Đukanović"...that a nationalist is cloaked in a civic cloak"...
"They also kept saying that I was a witch and the like. And witches, of course, should be burned. So, the most rigorous things that Đukanović's propaganda wrote about me were now being repeated, only in a more brutal form," Tadić Mijović assessed, pointing out that, however, there was one difference - during the rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), paid propagandists spoke "such derogatory things" about her, but no official of the then government "ever publicly uttered such abominations, even though they were criticized."
"The difference is that now the highest officials of this government can roll you in the mud and throw you into this online arena, where you can then be spat on by various bots and followers of the ruling group," she said.
Tadić Mijović noted that Vranešov, as well as a number of other comments that followed in the media and on social networks, is very hurtful.
"I feel very bad because I see that hate speech has become a weapon that officials of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) use to deal with those who do not think like them, inciting hatred, division and violence, and their dissenters become legitimate targets," concluded Tadić Mijović in the police.
Convictions
Vraneš's comment posted on Instagram was condemned by numerous non-governmental organizations, journalists, civic activists, 20 out of 23 female MPs, including Bojana Pican from his NSD... The Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms announced that he would open a case, ex officio, due to the offensive comment.
Vranes said on Friday that he had no intention of offending anyone, not even Tadić Mijović. He claims that his response to her was "exclusively political in nature, not personal."
"Although I responded to the barrage of insults that Ms. Milka Tadić Mijović made on the show 'Načisto'... with a quote from Njegoš's 'Gorski vijenac', I would like to sincerely apologize to all members of the fairer sex who may have experienced that quote in a way that was not the intention of its citation," said Vraneš, whose statement was published on the NSD Facebook page.
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The leader of Pljevlja said at the beginning of last week that the Podgorica Assembly, which annexed Montenegro to Serbia in 1918, was legitimate, and that "Montenegrin separatists, despite undoubted testimonies, dispute this."
Commenting on these assessments, Tadić Mijović told "Vijesti" on Tuesday that Vraneš's moves were expected, and that he inherited "everything that is not a civic and libertarian anti-fascist Montenegro."
"He glorifies the invaders and chauvinists, and those who occupied our country in 1918, and it seems that he would also storm Prizren. He can, but alone, not with our children. They are going to Europe, not after Vranes," she underlined.
Tadić Mijović stated at the time that it was clear "what these prisoners of dangerous ideology, to whom the Chetnik criminal (Paul) Đurišić hero".
"We saw what this ideology brought us not only during World War II, but also in the 1990s... I hope that Montenegro has learned its lesson, and that Vraneš and those like him will be just a short episode in this interregnum in which there is everything on the political scene...", she concluded.
Vraneš often sends messages and takes actions that some in the public claim are contrary to the interests of Montenegro, calling them provocations. Among other things, he proposed that the church holiday, St. Petka's Day, be celebrated as the municipality's day, and he marked Serbian Statehood Day with a ceremonial academy on February 15 last year in Pljevlja.
In August, the local government in Pljevlja changed the road signs in the city center, so instead of signs showing the distance from major world metropolises, they installed road signs written in Cyrillic with the distance from Belgrade, Banja Luka, Prizren, and Knin.
Tadić Mijović: They make targets out of those who disagree with them
Vranes told "Vijesti" yesterday that in his statement to the police, he reiterated that the message sent by Tadić Mijović had exclusively political connotations, not personal ones.
"I respect all women regardless of political, national or any other affiliation. Njegoš's quote alludes to a troublesome old woman who causes discord among the tribes in Montenegro," he said in a statement.
Tadić Mijović, commenting on Vraneš's statement, said that she "expects nothing good from that man."
"I have no words. I am disturbed because these spaces are ruled by people who are either unaware of the weight of their words, or who deliberately incite hatred with such dangerous messages and turn dissenting voices into legitimate targets," she emphasized.
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