ABAKAN, Russia -- A journalist in the Russian republic of Khakassia is being charged with libel after his reports on the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower station were deemed "inaccurate" by local officials, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Mikhail Afanasyev has been covering the story at the power station where at least 60 people are still missing and 17 have been confirmed dead after one of the turbine rooms flooded early on August 17.
The local Prosecutor's Office said that Afanasyev -- who wrote that there may still be survivors in the lower levels of the dam -- is accused of giving "wrong information that damaged the honor and business reputation of the republic's leadership and the administration of the power station."
Afanasyev's reports on the disaster's scale and the number of the missing workers, as well as his interviews with the relatives of the missing, are available at the "Novy Fokus" (The New Focus) website.