Press Release by the Editorial Office of DAN Daily: The Shots Were Aimed at the Free Media in Montenegro

Dusko Jovanovic, Editor-in-chief and General Manager of DAN Daily, succumbed to the wounds inflicted by automatic rifle fire on Friday morning. He was shot and wounded as he was entering his automobile parked in front of DAN offices in “13 Jul” Street in Podgorica. The three bursts of automatic fire came from a passing car, which drove off in the direction of Podgorica University’s Law Faculty. Less than three minutes after the attack, three uniformed policemen appeared at the scene. Having in mind that they arrived on foot, they were probably in the vicinity. Immediately after the assassination attempt, Jovanovic was taken to the Montenegro Clinical Centre, where the complete medical team available at the surgery department of the hospital fought for his life for almost four hours. DAN Daily front-cover on May 28 Just before the attack, Jovanovic stopped to greet Dragomir Becirovic, “Politika” correspondent from Montenegro, who continued down the street on foot, but returned to the scene of the crime when he heard the shots. The several by-standers stopped a car that passed by and transported Jovanovic to the Hospital. After some time, the police arrived and closed off the scene of the crime and the Investigative Judge Radomir Ivanovic conducted the investigation of the scene, together with the forensics team. Who killed Dusko Jovanovic will be discovered by the competent Police and Judicial authorities. Jovanovic has been receiving threats for quite some time, a fact well know, just as it was know that, while he was Member of the Parliament, he was attacked in front of his house. During that attack, a briefcase was stolen with the documents he prepared for his speech in the Parliament. Those documents contained serious accusations against some persons close to the Montenegro Government. Jovanovic himself, the editorial team and the journalists of DAN daily were often the target of verbal attacks by representatives of the highest echelon of power in Montenegro, including the Prime Minister, the Heads of Police and the Secret Services. As inappropriate it would be to accuse them of compliance in the crime that happened on Thursday night, we believe it would be a mistake to ignore all those events related to threats, torture, trials in court, arson in the DAN printing plant and the other forms of pressure exerted on DAN, including the expeditious sentencing of the highest-circulation daily in Montenegro with fines and other sanctions. Last Thursday, the most horrible method was used to silence the paper. Several minutes before midnight, on Thursday, criminals, people from the arrest warrants, shot Dusko Jovanovic. That was not just a shot at a brave individual who hunted down criminals while holding the office of the Director of Public Revenue Bureau of Montenegro and later, in the Parliament, spoke openly about the misdeeds that lie as a heavy burden on Montenegro. That was a shot at the freedom of speech, at the free media in the country, at democracy itself and, ultimately, at the freedom of the whole nation. Who will dare go out into the street after this terrorist act? Who will muster the courage to let his child play out without the fear that some miscreant’s hand will strangle the life out of it, just because his/her father, brother, mother or sister hold a different opinion from those who live by the laws of dictatorship and crime? Signed by the Editorial Office of DAN daily.