Timoshenko: those guilty of beating journalists in Astrakhan should be brought to justice

Violations of journalists' rights during the passed elections in Astrakhan "look like an epidemic." The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by Boris Timoshenko, head of the monitoring service of the Glasnost Protection Fund.

"In some cities journalists were not let to polling stations 'in a friendly manner', without physical pressure; however, in Astrakhan and Derbent in one case some unclear 'securities' attacked a journalist and forced him to destroy photos, in the other - 'unidentified' armed persons took TV cameras away from journalists," said Mr Timoshenko.

According to his story, it would be just to bring offenders to responsibility, including criminal one; however, practice shows that this would hardly happen.

"Even if journalists' murders remain unpunished in Russia, we have no hope that those guilty of 'usual' attacks on media people should be ever punished. It's also notable that in this conflicts the culprits behaved rather confidently, as though fearless to break the law," said the source.

However, as Boris Timoshenko has noted, sometimes those who interfere with journalists' work are punished: in Krasnodar, the court passed a verdict of guilty on the case about the attack on the film crew of the MTRK "Krasnodar", which was committed on November 24, 2008. "For impeding the lawful professional work of journalists" (Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) three persons were found guilty and sentenced: one - to mandatory public works for 120 hours, and two others - to fines of 30 and 20 thousand roubles, accordingly.