A prominent independent journalist in Uzbekistan said on Wednesday he was beaten and doused with paint by unknown assailants in a new attempt by authorities to intimidate and silence the press.
Uzbekistan has cracked down on foreign media and local journalists since government troops bloodily suppressed an uprising in the town of Andizhan in May, accusing them of bias.
Alexei Volosevich, a 37-year-old reporter for pro-opposition site www.ferghana.ru, reported for it and a number of local and foreign news agencies when troops fired into a crowd, which included women and children, in Andizhan on May 13.
Witnesses say about 500 were killed. Authorities say 187 people - mostly "foreign-paid terrorists" - died.
On Wednesday, Volosevich said five men attacked him near his house after he had received a call from a person asking to meet him and promising "interesting material from Andizhan".
Volosevich told Reuters they had knocked him down and kicked him several times near his block of flats.
"Then they doused me with paint and said: 'You will no longer sell out our motherland'," said Volosevich, his face covered in indelible black paint and hair smeared with blue.