Watchdog

Gagik Shamshian, a well-known Armenian photojournalist, was severely beaten and hospitalized today in an incident that has been strongly condemned by the country’s human rights ombudsman and leading media watchdogs.

Shamshian suffered severe injuries to his genitals in a dispute with security guards at Yerevan’s Bryusov State Linguistic University. The guards refused to let Shamshian and several other journalists enter the building.

The journalists wanted to interview its rector, Suren Zolian, on corruption allegations.

Shamshian was knocked to the ground and kicked in the abdomen and groin by two guards after defying their orders to leave the building.

"I don’t deny swearing at them and kicking them in self-defense," Shamshian said afterward.

Shamshian took refuge in the nearby offices of RFE/RL’s Yerevan Bureau. He was taken by ambulance to the Nairi Medical Center.

Armenian police say an investigation is under way.

In a statement, police said Shamshian had been assaulted by Karen Mirijanian, the university's chief security guard, who was detained and questioned.

Shamshian, who mainly works for two pro-opposition newspapers, was visited in the hospital by Ombudsman Armen Harutiunian.

"He was lucky not to have suffered more serious injuries because the beating was really brutal," Harutiunian told RFE/RL.

Harutiunian condemned the beating as a further manifestation of "intolerance and an atmosphere of fear" reigning in Armenia.

In a separate written statement, Harutiunian presented the incident as the latest in a series of violent attacks on Armenian journalists in the past few years. He said none of the perpetrators has been identified or prosecuted.

A similar statement was also issued by the Yerevan Press Club, the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech, and four other Armenian civic groups.

(Story and photos by Hasmik Smbatyan)

The human rights records of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the Russian republic of Chechnya, are ranked as among the eight "worst of the worst," according to a new report of the world's most repressive societies by Freedom House.

"The countries and territories in 'Worst of the Worst' are precisely the ones that the [UN] Human Rights Council should focus on," says Paula Schriefer, Freedom House's director of advocacy. "In these countries, regimes control the daily lives of citizens by denying them basic human rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of belief."

Other countries on the "worst-of-the-worst" list are Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, and Sudan. Also included are two territories, Chechnya and Tibet, whose inhabitants, Freedom House says, "suffer intense repression."

In an interview with RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, Arch Puddington, research director for Freedom House, says Turkmenistan "has not really embraced democratic change" since the death of former President Saparmurat Niyazov.

He says Turkmenistan "does not have real political freedom, nor does it have real elections, and no real free press."

But Puddington acknowledges some improvements in Turkmen society, adding that "observers do see one change, which is the absence of the cult of personality" that existed under Niyazov.

The Freedom House report also includes nine additional countries near the bottom of Freedom House’s list of the most repressive: Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Zimbabwe. The two territories of South Ossetia and Western Sahara are also included in this group.