Police in Montenegro have arrested a local businessman in the capital Podgorica on suspicion of assaulting a journalist, which the prime minister on Monday slammed as an "unacceptable act".
Ana Raickovic, a journalist at the daily newspaper Pobjeda, was attacked on Sunday evening outside a restaurant in Podgorica, police said in a statement cited on national television.
Police later detained a man referred to as Z.B., 63, whom Pobjeda and many media outlets in the Balkan country have named as Montenegrin businessman Zoran Becirovic. Two others were also taken into custody.
The reporter was "insulted" and "threatened" before she met up with two family members, the statement said.
"They were then all assaulted verbally, then physically, by the three" suspects.
The suspects are also accused of damaging the journalist's car.
Her newspaper denounced "a barbaric settling of scores", adding that she "took several blows to the head and the body".
Although it did not refer to a specific article, the editors added that Becirovic "should have responded with a statement or denied (accusations) if he found that something false had been written about him".
The head of the government of Montenegro, which is negotiating to join the European Union, responded to the incident on Monday.
"I condemn in the strongest terms the attack against journalist Ana Raickovic (and) I ask the relevant authorities to investigate this case efficiently," Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said on X.
Fourteen attacks on journalists have been recorded in Montenegro so far this year, according to the Centre for Citizen Education, with the NGO urging the authorities to "understand the severity of the issue".