Beaten up journalist in Bulgaria, collegues protest

This story comes from Bulgaria and shows that even in democratic countries, like Bulgaria is (also a member of European Union), journalists are coping with taugh violations of press freedom and freedom of speech. Beaten up journalist, Ognyan Stevanov, is reporting about relationships between some Bulgarian government leaders and business and mafia.

Bulgarian Reporters Rally in Support of Beaten up Colleague

About 100 reporters from numerous media gathered Thursday in downtown Sofia to rally in support of the editor-in-chief of "Frog News" website, Ognyan Stefanov, who was severely beaten up few days ago.

The protesters prepared and read a declaration to be sent to the international journalistic organizations.

"The barbaric attack against Ognyan Stefanov was not an attempted intimidation but a punishing action against the people, who have a different way of thinking, as well as against the freedom of speech and democracy," the document reads.

Stefanov was beaten unconscious by three masked attackers Monday evening in Sofia as he exited his favorite restaurant.

Before launching the severe battery on the 54-year old journalist, the three men declared that they were policemen.

Stefanov's colleagues adamantly refused to name the two individuals, who had dinner with the editor-in-chief just before the attack, citing the need of preserving the investigation's secrecy.

The team further appealed to different media organizations in the world to extend their assistance and voiced the opinion that the incident has been an assassination attempt.

The "Frog News" reporters stated that the interest towards their site has increased significantly in the last couple of days, making access difficult at times.