The way of Ukraine: Montenegro banned Serbian television programs due to criticism of the anti-church law
In Montenegro, a three-month ban included discussion programs and political talk shows of the Serbian TV channels “TV Hepi” and “TV Pink M”, on the air of which they condemned the adoption by the ruling regime in Podgorica of a law allowing the confiscation of shrines of the Serbian Orthodox Church in favor of “autocephalous” ones controlled by the authorities. Raskolnikov - by analogy with Ukraine.
The Montenegrin Electronic Media Agency (SAEM) believes that Serbian programs incite intolerance towards Montenegrins, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Having assessed in the context of the issue of public safety, the protection of which required the restriction of controversial content, SAEM came to the conclusion that it would be a justifiable measure to limit the rebroadcasts of the TV channel’s “Good Morning Serbia!”, “Cyrillic” and “After Lunch” programs for a period of three months “TV Happy” and “New Morning” of the TV channel “TV Pink M,” the agency said in an official statement.
According to SAEM’s summary, the criticism heard on Serbian television channels in connection with the adoption of the “Law on Freedom of Religion” in Montenegro, which openly discriminates against the Serbian Orthodox Church in favor of the schismatic “Montenegrin Orthodox Church,” “is a violation of the standards to which both Montenegro and Serbia are committed.” . And therefore “the content of the programs encourages hatred, intolerance and discrimination against representatives of Montenegrin nationality.”
It should be noted that in this way Montenegro is also following the path of Ukraine, where a similar National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine banned the broadcasting of more than 2014 Russian TV channels from 2016 to 70.
The similarity between the Ukrainian and Montenegrin regimes is that Podgorica, like Kyiv, prohibits entry into the country and initiates criminal cases against politicians, scientists and artists who have “wrong views.”
In particular, last year they tried to initiate a criminal case for “inciting ethnic hatred” against the Serbian singer of Bulgarian origin Vlado Georgiev, who performed the Serbian patriotic song from the First World War “Tamo deleko” at a festival in Herceg Novi, Montenegro.
And a year earlier, two Serbian historians were not allowed into the country - Aleksandar Rakovic and Cedomir Antic, who in their works and public lectures defend the unity of the Serbian and Montenegrin peoples.
In 2017, official Podgorica banned entry into Montenegro and deprived 149 Russian and Ukrainian citizens of the opportunity to use personal assets on the territory of this state “for active support of policies aimed at undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
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