Montenegro investigative reporter shot and injured

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 9 May 2018

Olivera Laki?, an investigative reporter in Montenegro, was shot on May 8. This attack has raised significant international concern regarding journalist safety in the country.

Summary

An attacker shot an investigative reporter in Montenegro Tuesday (May 8), police said, prompting calls from the European Union and the United States to protect journalists in the Balkan country.

Olivera Lakić “has a bullet wound in her right leg but her life is not in danger,” the police chief Vesko Damjanović told reporters.

Her editor, Mihajlo Jovović, of the influential daily Vijesti, said Lakić was approached by a man outside her home in Podgorica late on Tuesday and “shot in the leg, while she saw two other men running away”.

“I am speechless. Until when will this happen in Montenegro?,” Jovovic said.

“None of the attacks against her have been solved so far. Most of the stories that she had reported on, that point to crime, have not been investigated” by police, he added.

Lakić was attacked in the same place six years ago when she was punched in the head multiple times.

Damjanovic said the police force would “do its best to uncover the perpetrators and bring them to justice”.

The assault, the second against a journalist in a month, prompted international concern.

“The attack on journalist Olivera Lakić is very worrying. Journalists must be protected,” European Union ambassador to Montenegro Aivo Orav wrote on Twitter.

“Journalists are the guardians of democracy and must be protected so they can do their jobs in safety,” the embassy tweeted.

Police blocked main streets in Podgorica, looking for the attacker.

Last month a bomb exploded near the home of a prominent journalist in the northern town of Bijelo Polje.

The EU, which Montenegro hopes to join by 2025, as well as international human rights and media organizations have been insisting that the authorities solve all the attacks against journalists and media organizations.

Many of the dozen or so assaults in the last 15 years, including the 2004 murder of Editor Dusko Jovanović, remain unresolved. - AFP

KEY POINTS:

• Olivera Laki? was shot in her right leg outside her home in Podgorica.
• Her life is not in danger, but the attack has reopened discussions on journalist safety.
• Calls for action have come from the EU and US regarding protections for journalists.
• Laki? has faced multiple assaults, with many cases remaining unsolved.
• This incident marks the second attack on a journalist in Montenegro in a month.