Šemsudin Šeki Radončić

Šemsudin Šeki Radončić (24. May 1957) is a Montenegrin journalist, writer, screenwriter, director, producer, anti-war activist, and human rights activist. He is the founder and director of the non-governmental organization “Dokument”., whose main goals are the investigation of violations of human and civil rights and freedoms, police torture and war crimes.
== Biography ==
Šeki Radončić is the founder and director of "NGO Document", based in Podgorica. He is a member of the Montenegrin P.E.N. center. He is a co-founder of the Montenegrin Helsinki Committee and the Independent Daily News. In his career, he also served as vice president of the Independent Association of Professional Journalists of Montenegro. For his work, he received the prestigious Human Rights Award from the Southeast European Media Organization (SEEMO)).
He has written more than a thousand investigative texts, columns, comments and political analyzes, and has also worked as a journalist for the anti-war Monitor, Vijesti, Avaz, and worked in the correspondent office for TVBiH from Montenegro.
Radončić's texts were quoted and transmitted by the world's largest agencies and media: REUTERS, Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Al Jazeera Balkans, VOA, AIM… as well as regional media: NIN, Naša borba, Sarajevo's Oslobođenje, Naši Dani, Prishitna's Koha, Croatian Novi List, Macedonian Fokus…
He is the first journalist in the history of Montenegro to be convicted of defamation,to two months probation for one year. The reason for that is the texts in which the JNA commanders, Generals Radomir Damjanović and Pavle Strugar, are mentioned, as well as their raids on Dubrovnik and its surroundings, demolition and looting. Damjanović and Strugar were later sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (The Hague) to 7.5 years in prison..
After publishing a series of articles about political trials in Montenegro, unknown persons shot his mother and wife on January 27, 1994. After the publication of his book Black Box, he was sentenced to death by unknown Montenegrin police officers, whose tortures he wrote about. The turnaround came after a video with the most brutal phone threats appeared as evidence to the media and the police minister - where the accomplices withdrew their convictions. After a series of articles about the deportation of Bosnian refugees from Montenegro, in which the crimes and murder of as many as 86 Bosnians were discovered, on July 4, 2004, a bomb was dropped years ago, and 7 months later, the car was demolished. One of them is Kilibarda, a close war comrade of Radovan Karadzic.
 
The Prosecution used Radoncic's research paper on the ethnic cleansing of Trebinje as evidence in the trial against VRS Commander General Ratko Mladic, who was sentenced to life in prison in The Hague (Exodus of Muslims from Trebinje, Monitor, February 5, 1993).), written by Šeki Radončić. The same text served the trial of Milorad Krnojelac, the warden of the Foca concentration camp, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The text in question is taken from his book Black Box. |access-date=14 October 2021}}
== Filmography ==
Documentary films in which Šeki Radončić is a screenwriter or author, director and producer have been selected and screened at the largest European and world festivals and won audience and jury awards: IDFA-Amsterdam, INPUT, 21.dokument ART, SEE Fest, Sarajevo Film Festial, and at festivals in Prague, Trieste, Gothenburg, Warsaw, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago…
* 2020 – Conspiracy (screenplay, director, producer) – a film about the coup d’état attempt in Montenegro in 2016
* 2011 – A Hero of Our Time (screenplay, director, producer)
* 2007 – Esma (author and screenplay)
* 2006 – Carnival (screenplay), film based on Radončić’s book Kobna sloboda
* 2005 – Life and Adventures of Radovan Karadžić (an investigative journalist and associate on the development of screenplay)
* 2004- Fugitives (an investigative journalist and associate on the development of screenplay)
American professor, historian and human rights fighter, Robert Leonard Rope included Šeki Radončić in his book „The Gallery of the 20th Century Heroes”", , with the text „Montenegrin Simon Vizental“, among a hundred most distinguished human rights champions in the world.
== Books ==
Radončić's books and documentaries have been translated into English. They are represented in the world's largest libraries and are also used at the world's most prestigious universities Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, MLA…, as well as for doctoral dissertations and various researches.
* Black Box / Police Torture in Montenegro from 1992 to 1996 (1996)
* In Private (1999)
* Black Box 2 / Police Torture in Montenegro from 1992 to 1999 (2003)
* Behind the Mask/Clandestine Wars in the Secret Police (2003)
* Fatal Freedom / Deportation of Bosnian Refugees from Montenegro (2005)
* Miško Kesedžija and His Dogs / An Essay on the Montenegrin
* Evil (2012), co-authored with Marko Vešović
* Anatomy of a persecution/ On Activities of Media Mafia in Montenegro (2013)
== Articles ==
* The Circle is Tightening – a study on years-long hiding of Radovan
* Karadžić and Ratko Mladić (2004)
* One Hundred Years in Prison – political processes in Montenegro (2004)
Category:1957 births
Category:Montenegrin journalists
Category:Montenegrin writers
Category:Montenegrin human rights activists