PODGORICA (Reuters) - Three attackers beat up the managing editor of Montenegro's top-selling daily Vijesti early on Saturday in what he said was an assault carried out by opponents of his paper's investigative reporting.
Zeljko Ivanovic said he was leaving a restaurant where the paper was celebrating its 10th anniversary when three men attacked him with metal or wooden sticks, causing injuries all over his body.
Ivanovic told Reuters by telephone from his home in the small Adriatic republic that he believed the attack was mounted by opponents of his paper.
Vijesti, the first private newspaper in Montenegro, is the country's most trusted daily, according to opinion polls.
It backed former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in his long quest for Montenegro to become independent, which came to a successful conclusion when the country voted to end its union with Serbia in May last year.
But since Djukanovic retired from politics later in 2006 after 15 years in power as either president or prime minister, Vijesti has been critical of his involvement in business, accusing him of nepotism and corruption.
Montenegro's journalists' union condemned the attack, calling it "further proof that freedom of the press is in danger".
A prominent novelist was beaten and his driver shot dead last October, and the editor of Dan, the country's most polemic opposition daily, was killed in 2004.
"Journalists are still targets for individuals who are disturbed by professional reporting," Savo Gregovic of the journalists' union told local radio Antena M. "These people are disturbed by truth and investigative journalism."
