Editor shot dead in Montenegro

Jovanovic was a controversial editor

The editor of a daily newspaper in Montenegro has been shot dead, the paper and a judge have said.

Dusko Jovanovic, of the Dan paper was hit, as he left his office in the capital, Podgorica, late on Thursday, the reports said.

He was taken to hospital but died of injuries to his chest and head.

There was no immediate word on motive. Dan is seen as close to the opposition Socialist People's Party, a former ally of the Slobodan Milosevic government.

The gunmen who attacked Mr Jovanovic opened fire from a car with an automatic rifle, said witnesses and investigative judge Radomir Ivanovic.

Controversy

Mr Jovanovic was the first journalist charged with contempt of the UN war crimes tribunal, after publishing the name of a protected witness who gave evidence against Mr Milosevic.

Media shock at editor's murder

The paper has also been involved in several libel lawsuits, and was frequently critical of the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

Mr Djukanovic condemned the murder as "an attack on stability of Montenegro and a threat to security of its citizens".

Reports in Dan about the editor's death said he had received numerous death threats.

The murder was "the most horrible form of silencing Dan", the paper said.

"It was not just a shooting of a brave man, but shooting into free speech and independent journalism and democracy."

The deputy chairman of Montenegro's Assosciation of Professional Journalists, Dimo Ramovic, condemned the attack.

"This is not the way to deal with journalists," he told the Mina news agency.

"There are courts if someone does not like what they do, but this is not the way to settle accounts with them."