(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed dismay over the violent attack on sports journalist Kostas Nikolakopoulos, reportedly by football hooligans. The attack took place just after he finished broadcasting on Sport FM radio station in Athens on 7 May 2005. Four hooded men armed with iron bars and knuckledusters brutally beat Nikolakopoulos, aged 41, in front […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed dismay over the violent attack on sports journalist Kostas Nikolakopoulos, reportedly by football hooligans. The attack took place just after he finished broadcasting on Sport FM radio station in Athens on 7 May 2005.
Four hooded men armed with iron bars and knuckledusters brutally beat Nikolakopoulos, aged 41, in front of his wife and two young daughters as he was returning home. The journalist’s assailants only stopped hitting him once he was lying on the ground. His wife took him to Nikea hospital, close to the scene of the attack. Nikolakopoulos, who also works for the dailies “Fos ton Sport” and “Adesmeftos Typos”, was left with head, rib and hand injuries.
“It is essential that those who carried out this attack be identified quickly and brought before a court. A climate of impunity, which would be damaging to press freedom, should not be allowed to take hold. Sports journalists should be able to express themselves without being intimidated or attacked by supporters,” RSF said.
“This attack was carried out by football hooligans,” Nikolakopoulos said as he left hospital 48 hours later. “I have been receiving veiled threats for three months. A week before the attack, a man phoned my home and kept asking for my address so he could deliver a package. But after checking, no package was ever sent to me,” he told RSF. The journalist will be unable to work for two weeks as he recovers from his injuries.
Police said the assailants were Greek football supporters. They were checking a recording of the broadcast Nikolakopoulos had just finished. He covers sports events linked to the Olympiakos football club and its supporters.
This was the second violent attack on a sports journalist in Athens in recent months. On 18 October 2004, Philippos Syrigos, sports editor of the daily “Eleftherotypia”, which focuses on sports investigations, was beaten up by thugs wearing motorcycle helmets and armed with knives. He had just left the offices of Sport FM in Athens’ Kallithéa district (see IFEX alerts of 5 November and 19 October 2004).
