(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a brutal attack on Alexander Danutsa, news director and anchor for TV-Stymul in Kirovograd, central Ukraine. The attack is the latest in the ongoing harassment of independent media ahead of the 21 November 2004 presidential elections (see IFEX alerts of 19, 17, 2 and 1 November, 29 and 20 October […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a brutal attack on Alexander Danutsa, news director and anchor for TV-Stymul in Kirovograd, central Ukraine. The attack is the latest in the ongoing harassment of independent media ahead of the 21 November 2004 presidential elections (see IFEX alerts of 19, 17, 2 and 1 November, 29 and 20 October 2004).
In a letter to Interior Minister Mykola Bilokon, the organisation cautioned the minister about “what might happen next to Alexander Danutsa,” and urged him “to do everything possible to protect the journalist.”
Danutsa was attacked in the early evening of 18 November as he got into the lift at the Turist Hotel, which houses the TV-Stymul studios. Two black-clad men followed him into the studios, seized his camera and videotape and then brutally beat him.
The tape contained evidence linking local authorities to fraudulent activities in advance of polling. His assailants told him that it was his last warning and that he should stop reporting on the election campaign. He was taken to hospital with a concussion and bruising.
Danutsa said he had been receiving constant threats in connection with his reporting. A few days earlier an anonymous caller told him, “There’s a plot reserved for you at the cemetery,” and on another occasion, “They are waiting for you at the hospital.”
The station itself has also received numerous threats since it began broadcasting the news programme headed by Danutsa. TV-Stymul also broadcasts opposition television Kanal 5 in the Kirovograd region.
