Media rights groups are sceptical over claims by pro-Kremlin officials in Russia that the government is getting serious about protecting journalists, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Although the attack on journalist Mikhail Beketov following his criticism of local authorities has had coverage on state TV and in a government newspaper and has been taken up by a Kremlin advisory body, some are finding it hard to believe that it is genuine and think it could be to detract from the trial of murdered investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Elsa Vidal of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said: ‘It is such a U-turn that it’s hard to believe it’s sincere.”