New York, November 17, 2008 — The Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement today in response to Russian news reports of ongoing death threats via cell phone against Mikhail Beketov, the hospitalized editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, who was severely beaten on Wednesday:

“We are alarmed that even as he lies in the hospital in a coma Mikhail Beketov continues to receive death threats,” Nina Ognianova, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “We call on the authorities to provide him with 24-hour protection immediately, and track down and prosecute all those behind this vicious assault.”