Media watchdog groups have called for an immediate¹ investigation² into the murder of Kyrgyzstan journalist Gennady Pavlyuk.

某保护记者权益的组织要求立即对吉尔吉斯斯坦记者Gennady Pavlyuk之死做调查。

President Bakiyev faces deepening social discontent in the poor nation

Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute also warned of increasing dangers to journalists in the region.

Last week, Mr Pavlyuk was apparently显然地，表面 thrown from the sixth floor of an apartment building in Kazakhstan.

He died on Tuesday after several days in a coma陷于昏迷.

Police in Kazakhstan said Mr Pavlyuk's death was being treated as murder.

He was visiting the Kazakh city of Almaty where he was found at the foot of the apartment building, with his hands and feet bound with duct tape胶带.

Pressure pattern

Human rights groups say attacks on Kyrgyz journalists have become increasingly frequent.

"There must be an immediate, thorough and transparent⁵ investigation," said David Dadge, director of the International Press Institute.

"This was a particularly brutal⁶ and callous无情的 murder, and I would encourage the international community... to vocally⁸ condemn⁹ Pavlyuk's murder and to pressure the authorities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to make sure that this case does not join the appalling令人震惊的，可怕的 list of unsolved attacks on Kyrgyz journalists," he added.

Mr Pavlyuk, a leading critic of Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, had been planning to set up a newspaper for the Kyrgyz opposition¹¹.

He was hospitalised on 16 December in Kazakhstan's capital Almaty, according to Kazakh media reports, with multiple injuries, including broken ribs肋骨，排骨.

"There is a version that it is an attempted murder," a Kyrgyz interior ministry¹² spokesman told AFP.

"Ten days ahead of taking over the presidency¹³ of the Organisation¹⁴ for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Kazakh authorities cannot allow a murder like this to go unpunished and the Kyrgyz side must cooperate in resolving this case", Reporters Without Borders said.

The advocacy group noted¹⁵ that the attack on Mr Pavlyuk was the third in a week launched against Kyrgyzstan journalists of Russian origin.

Political analyst¹⁶ Alexander Knyazev was attacked in the capital Bishkek on 9 December and the correspondent for Russian news agency BaltInfo, Alexander Evgrafov, was struck and threatened by uniformed police on 15 December, it reported.

The IPI also pointed¹⁷ out that the 2007 murder of an Uzbek乌孜别克族的 journalist in Kyrgyzstan had yet to be solved.