Soviets Beat Protesters, News Crews

Security agents beat protesters and journalists and smashed cameras today, ending a week of demonstrations for an imprisoned Jewish activist that began peacefully but grew increasingly violent.

Dissident sources said four of the demonstrators were sentenced to 15-day jail terms. Protests on behalf of Josef Begun have been held since Monday at the Arbat, a shopping mall in central Moscow about a mile from the Kremlin.

Three American reporters were detained for more than two hours. Others were punched or shoved to the ground while covering the demonstration.

Begun, a Hebrew teacher, was sentenced to a seven-year prison term in 1983 for anti-Soviet activity and was not included in the recent mass release of 140 prisoners.

Contrast to Gorbachev Policy

Today’s punching and kicking melee was the old-style official reaction to demonstrations, a contrast to the policy of greater openness being proclaimed under Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Tass press agency accused Western journalists of “orchestrating” the demonstrations, which protesters had said would last for five days.

The agency repeated official assertions that police stepped in to prevent violence between protesters and “passers-by,” but men in civilian clothes who roughed up demonstrators were well-organized and acted with the clear consent of uniformed policemen.

About two dozen of the plainclothesmen were whisked away in a police bus after breaking up the protest.

The security agents smashed the cameras of crews from the American cable network CNN and French television. They searched the crowd for other people carrying television equipment or still cameras.

“No pictures!” a man in a white-and-gray fur hat shouted as he slammed his fist down on an Associated Press reporter’s camera.