Vojinović: Basic human rights of Montenegrin intellectuals are being threatened

The Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature (FCJK) is one of the rare higher education institutions in the world whose management and employees are regular targets of police, prosecutorial and judicial actions, said Fokalizator editor Vladimir Vojinović.

"It has become official, although it was previously speculated - the dean of the Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature, Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Radoman, has been prosecuted before the competent court in Podgorica, for allegedly disturbing public order and peace during civil demonstrations against the presentation of the July Thirteenth Award," Vojinović wrote in a text published on the Focalizator website.

He recalls that Radoman spent some time in the Emergency Center after the demonstrations, because he "was the target of chemical substances used by the police against the demonstrators." "That evening, no one wondered whether the police could have caused any more serious consequences for Radoman's health. Radoman himself did not ask anyone about this, nor did he file charges for possible excessive police action. He drank his cup of bile and returned to his regular duties," Vojinović said.

He points out that this is the second dean of FCJK "who is being threatened with courts and lawsuits," because a few years ago, Adnan Čirgić, as the first man of that institution, "was questioned regarding certain accusations."

"If we add to this that our colleague Boban Batrićević also ended up in court due to a column published on the portal, it is clear that FCJK is one of the rare higher education institutions in the entire world whose management and employees are regular targets of police, prosecutorial and court actions," adds Vojinović.

Of this relationship, as he said, two more drastic examples are Vladimir Putin's relationship towards certain Russian intellectuals and professors and Aleksandar Vučić's relationship towards certain Serbian intellectuals and professors.

"In both cases, however, these are moves by autocratic rulers towards the critically minded intelligentsia. The Montenegrin case is more specific, because a similar form of pressure on intellectuals and professors is being carried out in a supposedly democratic country, which is a few steps away from entering a community that is based on the rights and freedoms of thinking people, people who can speak, write and protest freely."

Vojinović said that the initiation of proceedings against Montenegrin intellectuals actually most clearly indicates the government's desire for Montenegro to join the European Union.

"This desire is questionable, not only because the basic human rights of Montenegrin intellectuals are being threatened, but because only those who do not want to see it do not notice that the FCJK is an address where diplomatic representatives of all EU members are frequent guests and regular collaborators. And that they all provide great support to that institution," he said.