The Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has expressed shock and alarm at recent attacks on Russian journalists. It has urged the Russian authorities to ensure that all journalists working in Russia are allowed to carry out their professional duties without risk of violence.
Oleg Kashin of the Kommersant newspaper was attacked outside his home in Moscow on Saturday. Anatoly Adamchuk a reporter for the Zhukovskie Vesti was attacked by two men as he was leaving his newspaper’s offices on Monday.
The EBU’s News Assembly* welcomed President Medvedev’s condemnation of the attack on Kashin. However, it noted with concern that 19 journalists have been killed in Russia since 2000 and 18 of these cases remain unsolved.
“[The EBU …] condemns violence against journalists and calls upon governments everywhere to investigate all instances of violence against journalists and bring to justice those responsible’.
* The annual EBU News Assembly meeting brings together all major European public service broadcasters.
