PODGORICA (Montenegro), May 9 (SeeNews) – Montenegro's ministry of the interior said late on Tuesday they will do their best to find and bring to justice the perpetrator of a 'brutal attack' on Olivera Lakic, an investigative journalist working for local news daily Vijesti.
A man shot Lakic in the leg in front of her home in the capital Podgorica on Tuesday evening, Vijesti reported earlier in the day.
"We will take all legally prescribed measures to shed light on the case and bring the perpetrator to justice," Montenegro's interior minister, Melvudin Nuhodzic, said in a statement condemning the attack.
"I assure you that the government, the ministry and I personally remain committed to protecting the freedom of the media and the safety of journalists as one of the most important values of any democratic society," Nuhodzic added.
The editor-in-chief of Vijesti, Mihailo Jovovic, said in the online version of the newspaper that Lakic reported on crime and corruption.
In recent months Lakic wrote about cigarette smuggling, after in 2011 she found that counterfeits of branded cigarettes were being produced on the premises of the Majkovac-based Tara plant. She reported that members of the police force and the national security agency were associated with the illegal production.
The threats to Lakic started in 2011 and in 2012 she was beaten in front of her home, Vijesti said.
According to the newspaper report, Lakic's life is out of danger.
Protests over the attack on Lakic are scheduled to take place at 11 am CET in front of the Montenegro's government building.