Centre for Civic Education (CCE) has previously pointed to a lack of transparency in the selection of collaborators for the Encyclopedia of Montenegro, a project that will cost citizens nearly one million euros by the end of this year alone, without clear information on the final costs and completion deadlines. It is also concerning that the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU) does not have biographies of externally engaged collaborators, nor internal acts on the prevention of conflicts of interest, which indicates arbitrariness in the process of selecting those working on this project.
According to CCE data, 90 people are formally engaged in the preparation of the Encyclopedia of Montenegro, some of whom are members of CANU, while the rest are externally engaged without available information on the criteria for their selection.
Of the 18 members of the Encyclopedia Editorial Board, 13 are full and corresponding members of CANU, with one academic having passed away in the meantime, and five external collaborators. The Editorial Board, as an expert advisory body to the Presidency and the Editorial Board, has 24 members, including nine academics and 15 external collaborators. Furthermore, the editorial units are divided into three fields, two disciplines, and seven themes. Additionally, there are three separate disciplines, each with only one member who serves as the editor of that discipline.
Within the Editorial Unit for Media and Journalism, in the field of State and Society, headed by academician Dragan Radonjić,Budimir Budo Simonović, Adem Ado Softić, and Milan Stojović are engaged. Stojović was appointed at the 15th session of the Editorial Board held on 15 September, in the presence of CANU President Ljubiša Stanković.
Milan Stojović became known to the Montenegrin public in the 1990s as a war-inciting journalist. During that period, on Radio Nikšić, he publicly read out the names of citizens who did not respond to the call for mobilisation. His work at the time was directed towards war propaganda and the spread of national hatred, and some of his texts and reports bore titles such as “Dubrovnik will no longer be Ustaša” and “The Zeta flows through Montenegro, soon the Neretva will too…”. He acted similarly from the front pages of “Nikšićke novine”, from which he sent slogans such as: “We will give our lives, but not Krajina” and “We will go, if necessary, through victories to Zagreb”.
Such editorial policy was also testified to by his former colleagues. “My first love was Radio Nikšić. I was dismissed from there because at that time Stojović banned all Montenegrin, Croatian, Muslim, and for a time even American songs. You can imagine what the editorial policy of the news programme was like when the editorial policy of the music programme was like this… I can give the example of the dismissal of the then leading figures of Radio Nikšić – Dragoljub Čavo Ilić, Miodrag Bubreško, Belo Bošković, Mira Perošević. Later, Stojović mentioned my name on the radio because names and surnames of all people who did not respond to the call to go to war were read out on air. You can imagine what kind of lynching it was when people were called out by name, surname, and father’s name,” states journalist Dragan Bulajić.
“Perhaps I should not have written all this to you because you already know it, but I cannot shake the impression that we forget and forgive too quickly. Therefore, let us knock it into our heads once more and move into a decisive battle. Surely we will not allow, along with everything that the Croats have cooked up for us with the Germans, for the Albanians to rampage through our yard as well, while the Sandžak people threaten with long knives…”, Stojović wrote on 16 April 1992 as editor-in-chief of “Nikšićke novine”.
Today, Stojović is expected to shape the content of media and journalism in Montenegro and to assess, together with the editor of the discipline Budimir Budo Simonović, who is worthy from Montenegrin media to be included in that Encyclopedia and who is not. For his work, he receives an honorarium, in addition to being paid 20% of the average net salary per session. This is financed by the citizens of Montenegro, including those whose names were publicly read out for discrediting because they did not go to war, as well as the families of victims of war crimes. CANU does not possess his biography as information, yet for some reason considers him qualified to write the Encyclopedia of Montenegro.
CCE emphasizes that for such an important project, which is also envisaged by the Law on CANU, the selection of collaborators must be based on clear, merit-based and transparent criteria. The practice so far, including unsuccessful attempts to produce the Encyclopedia, has often been burdened by harmful influences, so that instead of contributing to strengthening the statehood of Montenegro and all its elements, CANU appears as an irresponsible budget user.
CCE reminds that work on the Encyclopedia officially began on 1 September 2024. For CANU, 2.87 million EUR was allocated for that year, of which 1.6 million for support to scientific and artistic creation. Even before the start of the work, CANU requested that the Government approve an additional 195,000 EUR for the Encyclopedia of Montenegro from the budget reserve.
CCE calls on CANU to publish the biographies of all externally engaged collaborators working on the Encyclopedia, and also to exclude Milan Stojović from further work on this project.
Also, although CCE had previously submitted a request to attend the session of the Encyclopedia Editorial Board held on 18 March, it never received a response. CCE will continue to monitor the work on the Encyclopedia of Montenegro, and we call on other stakeholders to take an interest in this issue.
Sara Čabarkapa, Active Citizenship Programme Coordinator