Four are killed in Georgia war
FOUR journalists and a media driver were killed in the war between Georgia and Russia in August. Numerous journalists were injured or prevented from reporting in various areas of the conflict.
Stan Storimans, a cameraman for Dutch television RTL-4, was killed during Russian bombing of the Georgian city of Gori. The station’s Moscow correspondent was injured. On the same day, a Georgian reporter and his driver died when a shell hit their vehicle in Gori’s main square.
Two journalists, Giga Chikhladze, head of Alania TV, and Alexander Klimchuk, owner of the Caucasus Press Images agency, were killed by South Ossetian militia at a roadblock as they attempted to enter the conflict zone from Georgia.
At least nine journalists have been injured during the conflict, including five Russians, two Turks, and two reporters from a Tbilisi-based English-language newspaper.
Both Georgian and Russian authorities obstructed access to the internet and television. Russian hackers reportedly attacked Georgian government websites and blocked access to Georgian news sites. Georgian authorities responded by blocking access to Russian TV news broadcasts and to websites ending with the Russian domain “.ru”.