Reporters Without Borders has strongly condemned a brutal attack against freelance journalist Gift Phiri, former reporter for the weekly "Zimbabwe Independent", who was beaten up by men accusing him of working for media hostile to the government, according to a RSF release as reported on the www.journalism.co.za website. The attack came three weeks after threats were issued against those who contribute to foreign media by the minister in charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). "Forced into unemployment, threatened with prison and now beaten up: the fate Robert Mugabe reserves for independent journalists is more and more vicious," said Reporters Without Borders.