TV Director Beaten to Death Outside Office

A Ukrainian television station director who had been banned from journalism and took his case to an international human rights court was beaten to death by assailants wielding bats, news reports said.

Ihor Alexandrov was attacked Tuesday outside his office in the Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, said Reporters Without Borders, a media-monitoring group. He died of head injuries three days later. The motive for the assault was unclear.

In 1998, a local court sentenced Alexandrov to prison and banned him from working as a journalist for violating campaign coverage laws, Reporters Without Borders said. He was acquitted last year after taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights in France.