‘I will not be silenced’: Calgary radio host’s attack caught on CCTV

A Calgary radio host is speaking out after he was attacked outside a banquet hall in northeast Calgary this weekend.

Rishi Nagar — news director at RED FM, a Southeast Asian station in Calgary — says he was leaving the Rio Banquet Hall on Sunday around 3 p.m. when he was approached by two men.

“They used some bad words, foul language and bad language, and then they gave me a beating,” Nagar said.

CCTV footage from RED FM shows the moment one of the two men started punching Nagar in the face and knocked him to the ground, leaving him with serious injuries to his left eye.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Calgary Police Service told Global News there are no suspects in custody and the investigation is ongoing.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Rishi told the media about a story he reported last week involving two men outside the Dashmesh Culture Center on September 24.

According to police, two men were arrested without incident at the time and are now facing multiple weapons charges.

Before the attack, Rishi said the two men who confronted him on Sunday told him his story “didn’t add up.”

Nagar believes the story is the reason behind the attack and feels it was not just an attack on him personally, but an “attack on journalism” and “suppression of freedom of expression.”

“I want to make this abundantly clear: I will not be silenced,” Nagar said. “These cowardly actions will not prevent me and my colleagues from continuing our work, nor will they prevent the press from reporting on matters of public interest.”

Nagar is considering legal action.

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