A media chief in the city of Saratov is in critical condition after being brutally attacked on the 6th of March. Unknown assailants jumped Vadim Rogozhin near his home as he returned from work. Investigators said the 38-year old Rogozhin, who works as managing director of the Vzglyad media holding company, was repeatedly hit in the head with sharp objects.
Nikolai Lykov, editor-in-chief of the Vzglyad news portal, said Rogozhin was brought to the hospital with severe bruising and cut wounds. His health remained on edge after doctors operated well into the night.
“The operation, which lasted several hours, was over at around two in the morning,” Lykov said. “The surgeons, doctors did everything possible, but they could not give any guarantees. At this point everything depends on him, on his strength.”
Rogozhin’s colleagues believe the attackers intended to take the journalist’s life, and said the attack could be connected with his professional activities. Over the past several years, Rogozhin worked as a journalist for a number of local and national media outlets. Prior to his promotion in January to managing director of Vzglyad – a Saratov company that includes the newspaper Saratovsky Vzglyad, the information agency Vzglyad-Info, and the Internet television channel TV Saratov-Videonovosti – Rogozhin edited and reported for Saratovsky Vzglyad on corruption in the regional government, police, judiciary, and security services. After Rogozhin assumed his managerial position two months ago, he continued to influence Vzglyad’s editorial content, his colleagues told.
The Russian Union of Journalists and local media heads in Saratov released a statement on the incident, pledging support for Rogozhin. To raise public awareness on the dangers faced by reporters, several Saratov newspapers will publish white spots on the first lines of their
front cover pages, the statement said. The stunt aims to bring attention to the pressure journalists face from the criminal world. The statement goes on to say that journalists remain the most
defenseless “fighters for a just world order.” “The government must have the will and the means to protect the journalist’s work from criminal lawlessness,” it adds.
Saratov police opened an investigation into the attack and took Rogozhin’s computer to check for possible leads. Local police said they were looking for two suspects. Police specialists have created a photo fit image of one of the wanted men. The authorities with the Saratov regional department of Russia’s Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor-General’s Office took control of the case and started taking statements from the company’s staffers.
