Olivera Lakic

Media freedom in Turkey, Bulgaria and Montenegro is the worst in the region, according to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, published on Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders - but other Balkan countries have largely failed to improve.

"In southern Europe, a crusade by the authorities against the media is very active," the report warns.

Media associations in Montengero have criticised the country's Police Directorate for demanding a list of journalists covering organised crime.

Police say they need the information to assess whether reporters are under threat.

The OSCE South east Europe Media Conference, meeting in Struga, Macedonia, on Thursday adopted a declaration condemning the attack on Montenegrin Vijesti journalist Olivera Lakic, and called on the authorities in Montenegro to ensure that the investigation is independent, effective and speedy and that the perpetrators, including its masterminds, are brought to justice.

An attacker shot an investigative reporter in Montenegro on May 8, police said, prompting calls from the European Union and the U.S. to protect journalists in the Balkan country. Olivera Lakic "has a bullet wound in her right leg but her life is not in danger," the police chief Vesko Damjanovic told reporters.

Hundreds of journalists and NGO activists protested on Wednesday in front of the Montenegrin government in Podgorica against the recent attack on the Vijesti journalist Olivera Lakic.

Lakic was shot and wounded late on Tuesday in front of her home in Podgorica.

Olivera Lakic, a journalist with the Montenegrin daily Vijesti, was shot in the leg on Tuesday in front of her apartment building in the centre of the capital, Podgorica.

Lakic was shot in the leg but her life is not in danger. Police and an ambulance were soon at the scene.

A Montenegrin newspaper expressed bitter disappointment after a court ruled on Monday that there was no evidence to convict two men from Podgorica of staging a bomb attack that targeted the independent daily Vijesti.