Russian TV journalist found beaten to death

updated 3:02 a.m. ET Jan. 22, 2007

MOSCOW - A television journalist was beaten to death in Vladivostok, police in the Russian Pacific coast city said Monday. Colleagues said they did not think the killing was related to his work.

The body of Konstantin Borovko, 25, was found early Saturday on a street in the city with wounds consistent with a beating, said Yekaterina Polyanskaya, a spokeswoman for the regional Interior Ministry branch.

Borovko anchored a morning program on entertainment and cultural events at Guberniya, a major regional channel in the neighboring Khabarovsk Territory, but was in Vladivostok for exams at a university where he studied at the media department, said Inna Perekhozheva, editor of morning programs at the channel.

Colleagues suspect Borovko was the victim of a random attack or a robbery, said Perekhozheva, who said his work did not touch on sensitive issues.

Russia is among the most dangerous countries for journalists, plagued by attacks on reporters who criticize or seek to investigate corruption and injustice on the part of government officials.

The problem was highlighted by the September killing of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter and Kremlin critic who exposed human rights abuses in Chechnya.

The International Federation of Journalists said this month that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Russia since 1993 and that 40 of the murders since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000 had not been satisfactorily resolved.

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