In the weekly program Hit Tweet of Pink Television, which was thematically dedicated to “anti-Serbs in Serbia”, which was discussed in the studio by Police Minister Ivica Dačić and Vladislav Dajković, a politician from Montenegro and the president of the Free Montenegro party, as an example of “subversive action by the extended hand of former Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović”, the Božović family was singled out.
The reason for the show was, in fact, a recent event at the airport in Tivat, when a team of 87 men from Serbia with criminal records were not allowed to enter Montenegro, to the EU and Western Balkans Summit in Tivat, where regime banners “Serbia wins” were found.
The show’s author and presenter Verica Bradić, waving the weekend edition of Danas, quoted the text of Borka Božović, art historian and director of Haos Gallery in Belgrade, as proof of her claim against the Božović family, published in our Dnevnik section under the title “Again the sentence from the nineties: “You should all be expelled from Serbia”.
Along with the “analysis” of the text, she started targeting the whole family – her husband, Dragoslav Zeko Božović, by the way, a two-time vice-champion of Europe in karate, multiple champion of Serbia and Yugoslavia, coach of the former national team of Yugoslavia and SCG, a political scientist by education, who was also a member of the Democratic Party in the National Assembly of Serbia.
Following on from them, Balša Božović, their son, the former head of DS councilors in the Belgrade Assembly and a member of parliament in the Republic Assembly, today the president of the Executive Board of the Academy for the Development of Democracy, was also targeted.
The conclusion of the team in the studio was that “as Montenegrins, they got everything in Serbia, almost for free, and yet they are “participating in the destruction of our country”. Dajković even asked the question to Dacic, “Why don’t you expel them, why are you keeping them here?”
Along with all these comments, private photos of the Božović family were shown on the screen, as if in a time machine from the Nazi era, but at the end of the show, the fascist salute and the proposal to hang yellow ribbons were still missing.
According to Čedomir Čupić, retired political scientist and full professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, who was also the long-time head of the Department of Journalism and Communication, this event goes beyond the scope of the scandalous and leads to much more dangerous problems.
– In that show, Verica Bradić committed a serious abuse of the journalistic profession, she violated journalistic standards, but also ethical norms – she says for Danas. – Marking someone according to his national origin is what opens the process of a radical nationalist approach, in which chauvinism and hatred come to the fore.
By accentuating the Božović family in that show, it in fact incites national hatred, especially towards people who are originally Montenegrins or declare themselves as Montenegrins in Serbia, and who live there, and Serbia is their home.
When it comes to the Božović family, it should be said that they have been in that home for decades, where their children were born, and with their activities they have contributed significantly to Serbia in several fields. Borka Božović, an art historian, raised and continues to raise the cultural and value level of Belgrade, and thus Serbia, by organizing exhibitions of the most outstanding artists, not only from our country, but also those who are originally from here, but also from around the world, especially with the Haos Gallery.
On the other hand, Čupić states, her husband was a prominent athlete, and her sons, like her husband, as activists in the process of democratization of the country, made a great contribution to the development of democracy and civil liberties in Serbia, although, as she says, we obviously did not succeed much in this.
– This kind of attack on the Božović family is very dangerous – inciting national hatred tomorrow may lead to inciting the expulsion of certain people who think differently from this government and support student protests. But also what is most dangerous – to the incitement to violence. I think that in the case of the targeting of the Božović family, the journalistic associations, as well as the prosecutor’s office, would have to react, because this is, in fact, a much more dangerous act that can open up dangerous problems.
Especially among people who are not well informed, who are captives of the state media and their nationalistic and chauvinist views that they broadcast day and night in their programs. Also, the cultural and intellectual community should react, as the newspaper Danas shows these virtues and reacts – Professor Čedomir Čupić points out.
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