Criticism as Russian reporter convicted of defaming official

A RUSSIAN reporter left handicapped by a 2008 attack he linked to his work was convicted yesterday of defaming one of the officials he criticised.

Mikhail Beketov’s supporters said the verdict was another sign of degrading media freedom in Russia, where another journalist covering the same story was beaten so badly over the weekend that doctors placed him into an artificial coma to protect his brain.

Beketov, a reporter for the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, irked authorities with his articles of corruption involving the Khimki forest, part of which officials have torn down to make way for a highway to St Petersburg that may or may not be built.