Two journalists were attacked in Zaporozhye.

This information was communicated by Anatoliy Eriomin, the prosecutor of the Khortitskiy district of Zaporozhye. According to the prosecutor’s words, on 3 September Sergiy Goncharenko, a journalist of the newspaper “Zaporizhska Sich”, was stabbed with knife in his stomach. “The victim tells that a stranger greeted him in the doorway of his house. The journalist answered the greeting. After this he felt the acute pain in his stomach and saw that he was wounded with the knife”. The journalist got to a hospital, where he underwent a surgical operation. Now his condition is of medium gravity. Eriomin informs that both the victim and editor of the newspaper “Zaporizhska Sich” Oleksandr Veriovkin reckon that the attack was caused by the preparation of the material about the repartition of the property in the sphere of trade and privatization. The criminal case was started after part 4 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “hooliganism with the application of cold steel”.

On 4 September 2003 Mykola Loy, the a deputy of the manager of the weekly “Dosye” in charge of the questions of sale, was beaten in the Khortitskiy district of Zaporozhye. “Three strangers attacked him in the yard of his house and delivered several blows in his face”, tells the prosecutor of the Khortitskiy district. The criminal case was started after part 2 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “hooliganism committed by a group of persons”.

It should be noted that both journalists lived in the same house. The second attack took place on the next day after the first one.

In both cases the hooligans did not took from the victims either money or other things.

The oblast organization of the National union of journalists turned to the prosecutor of the Zaporozhye oblast, the head of the militia directorate of the Zaporozhye oblast and mass media: “We have the grounds to believe that these crimes were connected with the professional activities of the victims. The oblast organization of the National union of journalists is turning to leaders of law-enforcing structures with the demand to investigate thoroughly the criminal cases started after the facts of the attacks on the workers of mass media, and to guarantee the safety of journalists”.

Zaporozhye oblast youth public organization “Young Rukh”