Reporters Sans Frontieres Calls On the Kyrgyz Government To Bring To Justice Perpetrators Of An Attack On a Journalist

BISHKEK. The French-based NGO Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has called on the Kyrgyz government to identify the perpetrators of an attack on a journalist in the capital, Bishkek on 17 January. "This is a warning to all free journalists to stop writing articles about corruption in the political sphere and in the presidential family," Soria Blatmann of RSF's Europe desk, told journalists on Monday.
"We ask you to take all possible action to identify those responsible for this attack and to bring them to justice. This attack represents a new assault on the freedom of the independent press and on opposition groups in Kyrgyzstan, which continue to face systematic and unacceptable pressures," Robert M?nard, the RSF secretary-general, stated in a letter addressed to Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev.
Alexandra Chernykh told RFE/RL today that she was attacked in the city centre while on her way home, accompanied by her three children. She was hit violently on the head by unknown persons. She thinks that the assault was connected with her mother's activities as an independent journalist.
Chernykh is a correspondent of the independent daily 'Moya Stolitsa' (My Capital City). Her mother, Rina Prizhivoit, prominent Kyrgyz journalist, is the editor of the political department of the newspaper.