2005-2014

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - A couple weeks ago, my wife and I caught a lengthy but entertaining promo for the Winter Olympics on NBC. It consisted of ice skaters skating, plus a song that combined hip-hop and arena rock by a group we didn't know. A little searching on the Web revealed that the group was Flipsyde, that Washington Post critic Geoffrey Himes considered its "largely ignored" We the People to...

South Africans are proud of our democratic Constitution and its media freedom provisions. And so we should be, given our exemplary rights to free speech and our diverse media, and their contrast to neighbouring countries Zimbabwe and Swaziland. It's not that we're just "lucky" to lead the continent in this respect: our relative paradise was hard fought for. But before we get too complacent, it's...

Mumbai: Independent News & Media Plc, publishers of The Independent newspaper and who now have a 26 per cent equity stake in Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL), would like to introduce an Indian language daily in South Africa. According to Gavin K O'Reilly, Chief Operating Officer, the Irish media major drew its strength from servicing diverse geographies, a truism therein being that growth would require...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers. In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site. The study was published in the latest issue of the...

NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The chief executive of U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold accused The New York Times on Tuesday of "disturbing and provocative misstatements" for criticizing the company's financial support of the military in Indonesia, where it operates a huge mine. Richard Adkerson also acknowledged that as a result of the newspaper report, the company has received...

The Israeli media failed the test of covering the disengagement - according to a new report released Tuesday by Keshev, The Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel. An extreme portrayal of settlers, and a marginalization of the Palestinians and of the political and historical implication of the process, are the two issues sited in the report as the media's most glaring failures. "The...

The Government has proposed a policy that could ban cross-media ownership in the country. Information minister Mutahi Kagwe confirmed that the policy, which is contained in the broader Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) framework, was discussed and passed by the Cabinet last week. "We are asking ourselves whether we should allow one person to own a newspaper, TV station and four FM...

17 January 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Iranian state-run media are reporting that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has decided to allow CNN to resume operations in Iran following an apology by the U.S.-based news network for misquoting Ahmadinejad, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reported. Iranian authorities on 16 January banned CNN journalists from working in Iran after the broadcaster, during a live translation of a...

BEIJING (AFX) - China had a total of 111 mln Internet users as of the end of 2005, against 94 mln a year earlier, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a report. The Internet information center said Internet expenditure in China surpassed 100 bln yuan for 2005. This was the first time spending data has been released. CNNIC also said China's Internet users spent an average...

TEHRAN - The US-based news channel CNN has been banned from working in Iran for having mistakenly quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying his country is seeking nuclear weapons, a government official said Monday. During CNN's simultaneous translation of a press conference by Ahmadinejad Saturday, the president was quoted as saying that "we believe all nations are allowed to have nuclear...