MOSCOW – The Committee to Protect Journalists is blaming Russian authorities' inattention to anti-media hostility as enabling the attack near Chechnya that left six journalists injured.
The CPJ's statement Thursday came a day after attackers intercepted a small bus carrying activists and journalists, beat them and set the vehicle afire.
The journalists were on a media trip arranged by a non-governmental organization, the Committee For Prevention of Torture. Group member Oleg Khabibrakhmanov said there have been two other attacks on their organization recently.
"The attack follows a burst of menacing comments on social media and in the press ... by government officials in Chechnya," a CPJ statement said. The Wednesday attack "was enabled by the government's inaction in the face of overt hostility to the press."
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