MKM: National Library competent to initiate proceedings to determine liability

The Ministry of Culture and Media announced that the National Library of Montenegro "Đurđe Crnojević" can be considered the competent institution to initiate appropriate proceedings to determine liability for the misuse of the name of the National Library in the catalog entry of the book "Houses of the Homeless", for which writer Bećir Vuković received the Thirteenth of July Award.

The Ministry of Culture and Media also stated that the National Library should take all measures and actions within its jurisdiction.

The director of the National Library "Đurđe Crnojević" in Cetinje, Dragica Lompar, has sent a request to the Ministry of Culture and Media asking them to react to the misuse of the name of the National Library in the catalog entry of the book "Homeless Houses", for which writer Bećir Vuković received the Thirteenth of July Award.

The letter states that the name of the Đurđe Crnojević library was misused in the CIP record of Vuković's book, which the jury for the highest state award had before them when deciding who to award it to.

With claims that the National Library has been brought to the public spotlight as a possible accomplice in obvious illegal actions in the cataloging of books, Lomppar demands that the Ministry, which received the letter today, urgently respond to the gross violation of Article 4 of the Law on Publishing Activities.

The response of the Ministry of Culture and Media to Lompar's request is reproduced below in its entirety:

"Regarding your address that it is necessary for the Ministry of Culture and Media to take steps, which, as you state, we are obliged to do by Article 34 and, in connection with it, Article 35, paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Law on Publishing Activities, we take this opportunity to inform you of the following:

The performance of administrative supervision in accordance with Article 34 of the aforementioned law includes the performance of supervision in the manner prescribed by the provisions of the Law on State Administration and includes: supervision of the legality of administrative acts and other administrative activities; supervision of the legality and expediency of the work of administrative bodies, local self-government and other legal entities in the performance of delegated or entrusted tasks, and inspection supervision.

Considering that in this specific case you are referring to the misdemeanor liability defined in Article 35, we would like to point out that in the opinion of this body, the National Library of Montenegro 'Đurđe Crnojević' can be considered the competent institution to initiate appropriate procedures for determining liability, given the fact that it directly applies the substantive regulation governing the field of publishing activities. This specifically implies that it is the most competent institution to assess whether all legally defined elements of a misdemeanor have been met, i.e. whether all conditions (actions, consequences, circumstances) required by law for something to be considered a misdemeanor have been met, and in this regard, the most competent institution to potentially initiate appropriate procedures.

In this regard, we point out that it is necessary for the National Library to take all measures and actions within its jurisdiction, in order to determine the correct state of affairs in this specific case," the Ministry of Culture and Media announced.