2005-2014

Most people “expect the most prolific tweeters or those with most followers would be most responsible for creating” huge trending topics on social networks. But research shows otherwise. Researchers found that the mainstream media, especially those like The New York Times, CNN and BBC, act as “feeders” for news topics on Twitter, helping to amplify and in turn make something into a trend on the...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has described as “inadequate” the response of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes to Hungary’s controversial new media law and urged the country’s MPs to amend the measure. It said Croes’ demands to the Hungarian government were “in the right direction” but “not enough to remove all the threats to media...

Iran has launched a renewed crackdown of the past few days including a wave of arrests of journalists that began on February 14 and cases of harassment of journalists’ families. The authorities have stepped up cyber-attacks on news websites and disruption of the Internet in a sweeping form of censorship designed to stifle the protest movement and prevent information about demonstrations from...

Nepal is failing to act in the face of the growing number of attacks on freedom targeting journalists, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has alleged. Nepal has reached an extremely worrying level of attacks on the media, mostly the responsibility of political parties and religious groups. “We call on the authorities to do everything to end these attacks, prevent a...

Authorities in Bahrain, Yemen, Libya continue to prevent media from reporting on anti-government demonstrations. Bahraini authorities used live ammunition—including fire from a helicopter—against peaceful protesters and journalists on Friday. Pro-government thugs attacked two journalists in Yemen, and the Libyan government appeared to be shutting down Facebook, Twitter, and Al-Jazeera's website as...

Authorities in Bahrain and Yemen have escalated their physical attack on the press in order to censor coverage of spreading anti-government protests, the Committee to protect Journalists said Thursday. Also, in Iraq, at least two journalists were attacked by guards for the Kurdistan Democratic Party's building, local journalists told CPJ. "Governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa...

Some doctors post unethical and unprofessional content on Twitter, a finding that suggests the need for more oversight of physicians' use of social media, according to a recent study. Of 5,156 "tweets" sent by 260 US physicians, each with 500 or more followers, last May, researchers found that 3 per cent were unprofessional. This means the tweets included profanity, potential patient privacy...

There has been no significant police response to an incident in which snipers allegedly in the pay of an influential landowner fired on reporter Talat Hussain cameraman Haider Ali of the DawnNews TV channel when they were doing a story about the social impact of recent flooding in Thatta, in the southern province of Sindh, on February 4. No one was fortunately injured. Paris-based press freedom...

The authorities in Iran have increased censorship in a bid to prevent Monday’s anti-government protests, blocking independent or pro-opposition websites and other electronic media. Broadband speed has greatly slowed in major cities as in the run-up to previous anti-regime demonstrations or opposition events. Mobile phone and text-message traffic has been badly disrupted and the Persian calendar...

Authorities have detained Ross Dunkley, editor-in-chief and chief executive officer of the Myanmar Times newspaper, on immigration-related charges in Burma, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Dunkley, an Australian citizen, was arrested on February 10 on returning to Burma from a business trip in Japan, according to a statement released by his publishing group. He is being...