Women journalists in Montenegro, dealing with endless criminal proceedings

(Originally published by Media Institute Montenegro , 5 November, 2025)

Olivera has been going to those courtrooms for years now, awaiting a conviction for the attempted murder she was the victim of in 2018. As a journalist, Ivana has been following this case for a long time. Almost every time she returns from court, she enters the newsroom saying: “The hearing has been postponed, once again”.

Ivana Vlaović, who is also the coordinator of the Young Journalists Section of the Media Union of Montenegro, explains that the trial for the attack on journalist Olivera Lakić is one of the most striking examples of the state’s lack of systematic effort to address the issue of journalists’ safety.

“Numerous cases of obstructionism by the defendants, but also the inability of the judiciary to provide an adequate response, have led to the current situation in which there is a real risk that the case will become time-barred”, argues the journalist.

Vlaović adds that, seven and a half years after the attack, the motives and instigators remain unknown.

“The trial is practically at a standstill. Nine months after the attack – more precisely, 19 February, 2019, just two days before a visit to Podgorica by Johannes Hahn, then European Commissioner for Enlargement – the Police Directorate and the Prosecutor’s Office announced that Filip Bešović had organised the attack, stalking and shooting the journalist. Considering that the indictment was only confirmed five years later, it is clear it was a publicity stunt”, points out Vlaović.

This case has become a test case for the rule of law in Montenegro and clearly indicates the state’s (un)preparedness to protect the fundamental principles of democracy.

However, there is also a positive side, if one can call it that. The fact that Olivera Lakić, despite everything, never gave up her work is a powerful message and a source of motivation for a young journalist like Ivana.

“Her perseverance demonstrates that journalism, despite its many problems, has a future as long as there are people who do their work with courage and conscience”, says Vlaović.

While acknowledging some progress in the way relevant institutions respond to attacks against journalists, Vlaović emphasises that journalists in Montenegro continue to work in a dangerous environment.

“The attacks on photojournalists and journalists in Gornje Zaostro, near Berane, the physical attack on Ana Raičković, as well as all the experiences Jelena Jovanović  has gone through and continues to go through, demonstrate that, as a society, we still do not sufficiently value the profession of journalism”, explains Vlaović, citing just a few of the recent attacks on journalists.

She also notes that Montenegro’s decline in the journalist safety index is another sign, warning that the media situation needs to improve.

“The case of Olivera Lakić invites us all to reflect on how important it is to persevere in the fight for the truth, but also how difficult and dangerous this fight is”.

Olivera Lakić has been the target of continuous attacks since 2011 for her investigative work focused on crime and corruption, including cigarette smuggling at the Tara factory, which also involved the police and the National Security Agency (ANB). The first attacks on Olivera and her family date back to 2012: the perpetrator of the attack was convicted, while the instigators were never identified. The height of the intimidation campaign against the journalist came in 2018, when she was shot in the leg .

In late 2023, the Special Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro (SDT) filed an indictment against fourteen people suspected of assaulting Olivera Lakić and murdering Miodrag Kruščić. The journalist was shot outside her home in Podgorica on 8 May, 2018. Thirteen days later, on 21 May, Miodrag Kruščić was killed while sitting in a café at the old Podgorica airport.

At the end of 2020, the Special Prosecutor’s Office revealed that a group of inmates in Spuž prison had planned to kill Olivera Lakić. Among the group’s members were several prominent members of the Kavač clan, who later denied any guilt during the indictment hearing in April 2024. In addition to a text message exchange using the Sky app, the evidence presented by the prosecution was also corroborated by the testimony of Bajram Pista, who reportedly told prosecutors that the defendants had offered him 200,000 euros to kill the journalist.

Despite Olivera Lakić’s lawyers repeatedly requesting that the two cases be separated – particularly because Kruščić’s murder does not fall under the statute of limitations, unlike the attack on Olivera Lakić – he judge refused to do so, continuing to postpone the trial. The new hearing is scheduled for 24 November.

According to judicial documents reviewed by the Media Union of Montenegro, five criminal proceedings for attacks against journalist Olivera Lakić were conducted at the Podgorica Court of First Instance from 2012 to 2014. Of the five trials – initiated based on complaints filed by the journalist alleging her safety had been endangered – two resulted in convictions and three in acquittals.

The same year she began reporting on the Tara factory, Lakić received threats from Slavko Musić, an employee of the Mojkovac cigarette factory. Musić, accused of endangering the journalist’s safety, was sentenced to four months in prison.

As part of the criminal proceedings focused on the threats to which Olivera Lakić was exposed, Milan Grgurović was also tried. He blamed himself for threatening the journalist even though he had not done so. Grgurović was acquitted, but the motives for the self-slander were never established.

Despite the ongoing attacks and the police and prosecutor’s investigations, courts continued to issue acquittals. Thus, Milenko Rabrenović, close to former police chief Veselin Veljović, was acquitted of threatening the journalist, her daughter and the latter’s friend. Siniša Stojković, head of the Budva Criminal Investigation Unit, suspected of influencing the proceedings against Rabrenović, was also acquitted.

Two years later, in 2014, some people close to the perpetrator of the 2012 attack attempted to intimidate the journalist. In the criminal proceedings initiated in this case, Dejan Čurović and Ivan Siništaj were acquitted, and, as in the previous attack, the person who ordered the threats and attacks has never been identified.

Let us go back to the beginning of the story. On 24 November, Ivana Vlaović will return to court on Njegoševa Street in Podgorica, only to find that, despite numerous threats and physical attacks, the courts tend to acquit the defendants, while the instigators remain unknown.

Meanwhile, Olivera Lakić, awaiting the verdict, continues to live under police protection.

This publication is the result of activities carried out within the Media Freedom Rapid Response  and within ATLIB – Transnational Advocacy for Freedom of Information in the Western Balkans, a project co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. All opinions expressed represent the views of their author and not those of the co-funding institutions.

This content is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response  (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.