Why every country needs the first amendment:

2 Journalists Are Attacked in Russia

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- One journalist was shot and killed and another was left with a fractured skull after a beating in Russia's troubled North Caucasus, and police and co-workers said Wednesday the two men were likely targeted for their work.

The attacks on an Islamic TV reporter and an opposition newspaper editor are the latest violence to renew fears about the safety of journalists in Russia. A third journalist was shot by police on Sunday -- a killing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said represented ''a further deterioration of media freedom in Russia.''

We here at Thousand Fibers believe in not only the power of words but in the need for words and free speech in a truly democratic society. Stories like this frighten us, because they signal that much more is disturbed under the surface than just a random act of violence, a singular case of fear-mongering. Take note.