Reporters Beaten in Russia

Three Russian television journalists were kidnapped and beaten, reports the International Herald Tribune, reportedly to prevent them from reporting on a rally to protest human rights violations. The reporters are from REN TV, which the Tribune says was "the last independent national television station until it was taken over by a Kremlin-friendly bank earlier this year." The station provides "some of the most critical reporting in Russia, where the Kremlin has consolidated its control over the electronic media."

The reporters were nabbed from a hotel in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, sustained beatings from several armed men in masks and camouflage, were stripped, and left in a field.