2005-2014

JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 27 – Zimbabwe's security minister was quoted Friday in a government-controlled newspaper as saying that "the net will soon close" on those remaining journalists whose criticism of the government threatens the nation's security. The warning from the official, Didymus Mutasa, followed the arrest this month of employees and directors of Voice of the People, a news organization...

Before all you passionate right-to-privacy folks flood my e-mail inbox, hear me out first. Google's refusal to comply with a federal subpoena to turn over one week's worth of search inquiries is not for some higher cause to protect customer information. Google is not complying because there is no money in it, plain and simple. Even though some would like to believe the search engine giant is just...

Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, took the rare step of standing up for arch-rival Google today as he argued that state censorship was no reason for technology companies not to do business in China. The richest man in the world told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he thought the internet "is contributing to Chinese political engagement" as "access to the outside...

Knight Ridder on Thursday concluded two days of meetings with a trio of private equity firms interested in buying the San Jose newspaper company, which put itself up for sale at the urging of three major shareholders. Thursday's meeting ends the third week of presentations about Knight Ridder to interested parties. This week, Knight Ridder executives met with the Blackstone Group, Providence...

CHICAGO (January 26, 2006) -- Latin America can be a nasty place for reporters. Often enough that it can be called routine, journalists are assassinated on city streets by motor scooter-riding hit men, gunned down in a desert by narcotics traffickers or spirited off into the rain forest, never to be seen again. Their newspapers have been torched, their broadcast antennas bombed. Their cell phones...

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today reserved judgement on the bail plea of Inder Sain and Avtar Singh, the two accused in the murder of a journalist in Sirsa. The two accused, the disciples of Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa town, were allegedly involved in the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and another person, Ranjit Singh of Kurukshetra. They were earlier granted interim anticipatory...

More than 400 detainees being held in Iraqi and US-run prisons, including five women, were freed on Thursday in a move which could help free abducted US reporter Jill Carroll. "We have released 419 detainees today including five women," a spokesman for the US detention facilities in Iraq said. An Iraqi justice ministry official earlier said a total of 424 detainees were to be freed following a...

Every morning it is the same. A cheery, two-note tune that says: "Welcome to the world and all its weird and wonderful ways." Never mind Fritz Spiegl and his soon-to-be-deleted Radio 4 theme. The finest wake-up call on the planet is the one that comes from switching on the computer and logging on to the net. Yesterday morning, however, those happy notes might as well have been replaced with a...

LONDON: Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper lost its libel appeal against maverick politician George Galloway yesterday over a story saying he had been "in the pay" of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. A High Court ruling in December 2004 ordered the paper to pay Galloway 150,000 pounds (US$267,200) for the accusation, which the politician had always denied. Had the Telegraph succeeded in its...

With Osama Bin Laden’s last tape, we can see that he is not only acting as a celebrity but he is also being treated as one. Of course, this also applies to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and the other "stars" of our news bulletins. Having said this, I must confess to having doubts and questions about how these situations are dealt with and indeed whether they should even be covered...