2005-2014

OSM, a new online venture designed to bring together top online writers, journalists and commentators under a single umbrella, officially debuted at a New York City launch on Wednesday. Over 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM � short for Open Source Media. Journalist Judith Miller...

Heads of state issue eloquent policy statements at the gold-domed compound of the 176-nation summit. Vocal civil society groups and the best of academia are engaged in debates. They have the words, but the real action lies at a glittering pavilion, where the latest goods, gadget and systems are exhibited by the likes of Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Nokia and many others. "Business is the driving...

Building a bridge across the digital divide might not be the smooth path to poverty reduction that many people believe. As many as 17,000 people from around the world are attending this United Nations conference targeted at closing the now famous divide, the gap in access to the Internet and other information age tools (and skills) between rich and poor countries, and even within nations. But will...

NEW YORK It has not been a kind year for the newspaper industry. With costs rising and circulation on the decline, newspaper companies have responded by trimming a considerable portion of their staffs this year. A review of past news reports offers up a startling number: more than 2,000 jobs have been cut from major and mid-sized newspapers over the past year. That figure does not include cuts at...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The newspaper business is getting smaller. On Wednesday, five newspapers owned by Tribune Co. announced job cuts, but they're hardly alone. In recent weeks, no fewer than nine other well-known newspapers all announced cuts in payrolls or other expenses. What's happening? Here are some questions and answers about the challenges facing the U.S. newspaper business. Q. I keep hearing...

Tunisia's control over its citizens' access to Internet content places it at odds with the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society. The OpenNet Initiative on Wednesday released the findings of its investigation into Internet control in Tunisia � "Internet Filtering in Tunisia in 2005" � which documents the degree to which the Tunisian state attempts to control the national information...

A last-minute deal has avoided a split between the United States (US) and other nations over future control of the Internet ahead of the UN summit aimed at reducing the global digital divide. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan gives a speech during the inaugural session of the World Summit on the Internet Society (WSIS) at the Kram Palexo in Tunis. The UN Secretary General has called for...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the attack by Tunisian security forces on a television crew that was reporting from Tunis on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which began today. "The summit will descend into chaos unless the security forces back off and allow journalists to work" said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary. "The Tunisian...

As the World Summit on the Information Society gets under way in its capital, Tunisia continues to jail individuals for expressing their opinions on the Internet and suppress websites critical of the government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a comprehensive new report on the repression of Internet users in the Middle East and North Africa. The 144-page report, "False Freedom: Online...

(November 16, 2005) -- "If the leading newspapers lose their capacity to report and conduct inquiries, the American public will become even more susceptible to the manipulations and deceptions of those in power." --Michael Massing, "The End of News?," New York Review of Books, Dec. 1, 2005 It's not easy to be in the newspaper business these days. I probably don't need to provide the details why...