A RIA Novosti correspondent was beaten and detained by Georgian riot police on Thursday while covering mass opposition protests in the country's capital, Tbilisi.
Andrei Malyshkin was among other journalists covering an opposition demonstration in front of the Georgian parliament building that was brutally dispersed by police in the early hours of Thursday.
The journalist was knocked down and beaten with police nightsticks despite the fact that he showed his reporter's ID to police officers, and then taken to a police station among other detainees, where he spent more than five hours before being released.
Several other Russian and local journalists were also beaten during the crackdown. A correspondent of satellite TV channel Russia Today (RT), Diego Marin, was shot in the gut by rubber bullets and beaten with a police nightstick around his kidneys.
"RIA Novosti considers such actions of law enforcement agencies towards journalists who are performing their professional duties unacceptable," said Maxim Filimonov, the agency's first deputy editor-in-chief. He called on international journalist organizations to condemn the incidents.
Johann Bihr, who heads the European branch of Reporters Without Borders, said he was "shocked" by the crackdown on journalists, calling it "unworthy of democracy."
Riot police used water cannons, rubber bullets and teargas to disperse opposition activists who gathered overnight on the city's main street in an attempt to prevent an Independence Day military parade. They also sought to block the rostrum from which the president was expected to deliver a speech.
The opposition rally was sanctioned by the Tbilisi authorities to take place between May 21 and May 25, but the protesters refused to leave the streets after the deadline. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Thursday that outside forces seeking revenge were behind the protests.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said two people, one a former and the other a serving police officer, were killed after being run over by a motorized convoy of opposition leaders fleeing the scene. A total of 37 people, including eight police officers, remain hospitalized.
Ninety demonstrators were detained during the rally, with most put under two-month administrative arrests, a representative of the Georgian Interior Ministry said. Several criminal cases have also been initiated over the unrest.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the brutal dispersal of the rally was "a blatant violation of human rights."
MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti)
