2005-2014

From the start, the World Wide Web has been a vessel of quasi-religious longing. And why not? For those seeking to transcend the physical world, the Web presents a readymade Promised Land. On the Internet, we're all bodiless, symbols speaking to symbols in symbols. The early texts of Web metaphysics, many written by thinkers associated with or influenced by the post-60s New Age movement, are rich...

GENEVA -- The United States was isolated on September 30 as it sought to defend its monopoly over regulation of the Internet against the European Union and other countries that are demanding a share of the action, officials said. "On the issue of Internet governance, very big differences of opinion exist," the head of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said following a preparatory...

In a last-minute change of heart, European Union officials have put their support behind proposals to wrest control of the Internet from the world’s last superpower, the USA. The US elected to reject the proposed changes during a meeting last Friday. The event transpired during preparatory talks for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Its effect will be to...

Confusion and murk yesterday continued to surround the affair of Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who emerged from her prison cell on Friday to testify in a two-year-old investigation into the alleged leaking by the White House of the name of an undercover CIA operative to her and other journalists. The sudden surrender of Ms Miller to the district attorney investigating the case...

THE Judith Miller case offers invaluable lessons for journalism students and media professionals everywhere. The New York Times reporter chose to serve a prison sentence rather than compromise on the fundamental principles of media freedom especially a journalist’s right to protect the confidentiality of its sources. In doing so, the celebrated reporter of the Times upheld the highest principles...

On the eve of the 56th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has released a report of an investigation into the role of the news agency Xinhua News Agency in the system of propaganda and censorship put in place by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). With less than three years to go before the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the worldwide press freedom...

Guwahati: The entire media of Arunachal Pradesh, both print and electronic, has decided to observe ceasework from today following threats from All Arunachal Pradesh Student Union (AAPSU). The Arunachal media, in an emergent meeting held at Itanagar today, said ''all the media would ceasework indefinitely till the culprits were brought to book''. The AAPSU has been hit by an internal squabble and...

NEW YORK (AP) - New York Times reporter Judith Miller’s decision to escape jail by testifying about her conversations with a confidential source surprised some of her supporters and left journalists wondering what her choice will mean for press freedoms. Miller spent 85 days in jail for initially refusing to tell a grand jury whom she spoke with about Valerie Plame, a covert CIA official whose...

There cannot be a country in the world in which the words al-Jazeera do not provoke some sort of reaction. Now the Qatar-headquartered broadcaster is putting together a new worldwide English language TV station and all eyes are on Doha. Governments are apparently trying to place spies in its ranks, competing networks are badmouthing its output before a single hour is aired and senior journalists...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party. In a blistering report, the investigators, from the...