Russia
Brutal beating of journalist caught on cameraPosted Nov 17 2010
A video surveillance camera caught a Russian journalist, Oleg Kashin, being beaten with a metal bar outside of his apartment. Kashin writes political articles for the Kommersant, a popular newspaper in Moscow. The video shows him being attacked by two men who beat him for 80 seconds and kicked him in the head as they walked away. Kashin was still in the hospital as of Nov. 15 in a medically induced coma, with a broken jaw, concussion, fractures in both legs and broken fingers.
Mikhail Mikhailin, editor of the Kommersant, believes the attack had to do with Kashin’s work because the attackers broke his fingers, which is a form of punishment for his publications. In the last few months, Kashin had criticized a powerful regional governor and a pro-Kremlin youth group called Molodaya gvardiya. He also wrote about a controversial highway project in the town of Khimki.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that at least 18 murders of journalists have gone unsolved in Russia since 2000. Because these actions go unpunished, more attacks are likely to occur.
President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia ordered the general prosecutor and interior minister to keep a close watch over this case. He also tweeted “the criminals must be found and punished.”
In another case, Anatoly Adamchuk, a writer for Zhukovskii Vesti, was struck in the head as he left his office. Adamchuk had written about police harassment of student journalists who were trying to photograph trees that were cut down to build a highway.
After the attack on Kashin, they sent a press release, in which Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova stated, “We are outraged by the recent attacks on Oleg Kashin and Anatoly Adamchuk and call on Russia law enforcement to investigate every possible lead and question all possible suspects. No one must be considered above the law in Russia. All of the perpetrators must answer before a court of law and be punished for these brutal crimes.”