Concerns raised over free press

LONDON - The detention of several journalists traveling to and from the deadly school siege in Russia is raising new concerns about press freedom in the country, media watchdogs said Tuesday.

There also are accusations that a prominent Russian journalist and critic of Moscow's campaign in Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya, was victim of a deliberate case of food poisoning.

Politkovskaya fell critically ill last week with an acute intestinal infection and dehydration after drinking tea on a flight to Beslan.

"Ten minutes after drinking it, she lost consciousness," said her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

The detention of four other reporters has also caused alarm.

For example, Andrei Babitsky, a correspondent for the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, was detained last week at a Moscow airport on suspicion of carrying explosives, said Vladimir Baburin, an editor in the station's Moscow bureau. No explosives were found, but he was held again after two men provoked him into a fight, Baburin said. The men later said they were airport security officers who had been ordered to create trouble for the reporter, Baburin said.

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