MOSCOW (AP) — The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged authorities in Kyrgyzstan to thoroughly investigate the beating of a journalist and punish his assailants.
The New York-based media watchdog said Shokhrukh Saipov was beaten Wednesday in the sourthern city of Osh by unidentified attackers, who broke his nose and several teeth.
CPJ coordinator Nina Ognianova on Monday urged the Kyrgyz government to stop impunity in crimes against the press.
Saipov became the editor and publisher of news website Uzpress after Kyrgyz authorities failed to properly investigate the 2007 killing of his older brother, a prominent journalist.
Saipov’s website focuses on daily lives of ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan, which saw a wave of ethnic clashes that killed at least 470 people, most of them ethnic Uzbeks, in June 2010.
