(RSF/IFEX) – In a 29 June 1999 letter to Bogomil Bonev, Minister of the Interior, RSF protested against a violent assault on journalist Aleksei Lazarov, in Sofia. RSF asked the minister “to immediately open an investigation and to keep the organisation informed about its evolution.” Recalling several cases of violent attacks against journalists in Bulgaria […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 29 June 1999 letter to Bogomil Bonev, Minister of the
Interior, RSF protested against a violent assault on journalist Aleksei
Lazarov, in Sofia. RSF asked the minister “to immediately open an
investigation and to keep the organisation informed about its evolution.”
Recalling several cases of violent attacks against journalists in Bulgaria
in the last year, including that of Ana Zarkova who was splashed with acid
in May 1998 (see IFEX alert of 11 May 1998), Robert Ménard, RSF General
Secretary, asked the minister to do all his best to “ensure the security of
journalists in the country”.
According to the information gathered by RSF, on 28 June, Lazarov, a
journalist with the weekly newspaper “Kapital”, was stabbed and violently
beaten by three unknown persons. His assailants were armed with baseball
bats and knives. The journalist suffered five knife wounds and a broken leg
in the assault. He is recovering in hospital after surgery and his life is
out of danger. He was not robbed.
Lazarov, one of the weekly’s leading journalists, usually writes about media
and advertising issues. “Kapital” is very well known in the country for its
investigative stories and analyses.
