Newspaper editor badly beaten in his Sochi home by intruders

Reporters Without Borders is dismayed to learn that Arkady Lander, the editor of the independent newspaper Mestnaya (Local), was badly injured in a brutal asault by two unidentified men in his apartment in the southern city of Sochi on 26 April. The press freedom organisation urges the authorities to do everything possible to shed light on this attack and bring those responsible to justice. But it fears that impunity will again prevail as it has in virtually all other cases of violence against journalists in Russia. Lander said he thought his two young assailants, who beat him repeatedly with metal rods, had wanted to kill him. He did not lose consciousness, but doctors at the hospital where he was taken said he suffered a skull fracture, deep lacerations to the head and concussion. Neighbours had noticed the two young men in the apartment building, near Lander’s apartment, on several occasions in the days preceding the attack without attaching any importance to their presence at the time. It is now assumed they were there to reconnoitre. No one heard the attack because the two assailants had blocked the doors to the floor where Lander lives. Lander is convinced that the attack was prompted by his work as a journalist, above all by Mestnaya’s coverage of last month’s municipal elections. His colleagues agree, pointing out that nothing was taken from his apartment. Lander says he has no intention of ceasing to work as Mestnaya’s editor. The head of the local branch of the Communist Party, Yuri Dzaganiya, said he thought the attack was politically motivated as Lander had upset some people by covering the allegedly corrupt practices of certain local politicians. Reporters Without Borders condemns the attack, voices its support for Lander and hopes he will recover quickly. It agrees with fellow journalist Oleg Rubezhansky, who said: “This is savagery. This has yet again highlighted the fact that the press is not free in Russia. We pay with our health and our lives for freedom of expression because it is not guaranteed by the state.”