Club Voices Outrage Over Beating of Russian Journalists

The National Press Club called on President Dmitry Medvedev and other Russian authorities in the country to track down and prosecute the perpetrators who severely beat journalist Oleg Kashin.

Kashin, a reporter for the Kommersant newspaper, who wrote about topics such as a controversial forest highway project, was attacked by two men early Nov. 6 as he approached his Moscow apartment, according to news reports. Security camera video posted on the Internet shows one of the assailants using a rod to repeatedly strike Kashin. His severe injuries include a fractured skull and broken jaw, leg and fingers, according to the media reports.

"Beating any journalist is intolerable, but this attack was particularly outrageous,'' National Press Club President Alan Bjerga said. "Russian authorities must find the people who committed this crime and prosecute them. The assaults and killings of journalists in Russia must cease.''

Two other Russian reporters were also recently beaten, according to Reporters Without Borders, an organization that supports journalists worldwide. Sergei Mikhailov, editor of the local newspaper Saratovsky Reporters, was beaten Nov. 5 in the southern city of Saratov and Anatoly Adamchuk, a reporter for Zhukovskiye Vesti, was assaulted near his office in a south Moscow suburb, Reporters Without Borders said on its Web site.

Russia has established a bad reputation for not bringing to justice those who attack or kill journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 18 press killings have gone unsolved there since 2000.