Following news of their disappearance comes confirmation that two journalists, Alexander Klimchuk and Giga Chikhladze, were shot dead by South Ossetian separatist fighters. Citing Russian sources, the BBC also confirms the news.
The Russian radio station Echo Moscow reported that two journalists, including a photographer for the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, were shot dead by separatists after entering South Ossetia.
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I am so sorry, Onnik. These were two highly professional, independent, and dedicated journalists, and will be sorely missed.
RIP
Alexander Klimchuk was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1981. He received a BA degree in Jounalism at the Faculty of Newspapers and Magazines Editing of State University of Georgia in 2002. Till and during studying he worked as writer for russian newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moskovski Komsomolets (own reporter in Georgia) and other. After University he began shooting. Firstly, as staff for Eye of Georgia and as freelance for ITAR-TASS, Photoexpress, EPA. He actively involved with Polaris Images producing photojournalism and feature work, covering major stories worldwide. His photographs have been published in: Newsweek, The New York Times, Le Monde and other well known magazines and newspapers.
Giga Chikhladze was especially known for his reporting on minorities of Georgia, Here is a link to his report “The Yezidi Kurds and Assyrians of Georgia: The Problem of Diasporas and Integration into Contemporary Society”
http://www.aina.org/reports/tykaaog.pdf
Reporters without Borders story on the deaths of Chikhladze and Klimchuk:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=28124
Two journalists shot dead at roadblock in South Ossetian capital
Reporters Without Borders deplores the death of two journalists yesterday in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Grigol Chikhladze, the head of Alania TV, and Alexander Klimchuk, the head of the Caucasus Press Images agency and a correspondent for Itar-Tas, were killed while trying to cover the arrival of Georgian forces.
According to reporter Orkhan Jemal of the Russian edition of Newsweek, they were travelling at the time in a privately-owned car with US reporter Winston Federley and fellow Georgian reporter Teimuraz Kikuradze.
When the car tried to avoid roadblock erected by Ossetian pro-independence fighters, the Ossetians opened fire, killing Chikhladze and Klimchuk and wounding Kikuradze and Federley, who were taken to a field hospital in Tskhinvali, Jemal said.
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This blog is a compilation of news, analysis, links and original material by Onnik Krikorian, a British journalist and photographer now resident in Yerevan, Armenia.
He is the Caucasus Editor for Global Voices Online, the Armenia Editor for Oneworld.net, and also posts from Armenia for the Frontline Club.
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