2005-2014

Something doesn't add up about why Judith Miller went to jail. The New York Times reporter didn't write a story about the Valerie Plame case and had a waiver from her source in order to talk about it to the grand jury. But she insisted on going to jail anyway. Speculation is mounting that Miller is protecting herself─that Miller was herself a source of information about Plame that made it to...

The Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships (AFPF) is an American non-profit, non-governmental organization that gives developing-world journalists the opportunity to work as reporters in American newsrooms. The program, which runs from March to September, is offered annually to approximately ten professional print journalists between the ages of 25 and 35. Sharing the goals of AFPF, the Daniel Pearl...

Blogs were the "ideal news resource" after the recent bomb attacks in London, wrote the BBC: "Every feature of blogging found a new use. Comments sections became "Are You Alive?" sections. PayPal accounts became donations to buy beer for the emergency services. And long before politicians had a chance to make a statement, Londoners' own reactions were being quoted as the voice of Britain around...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Government’s top watchdog agencies, say that they should get immunity under the 2005 Right to Information Act. In other words, citizens shouldn’t be given the right to ask for information regarding the nature of their functioning–or the cases they handle. The heads of both the departments have told The Sunday...

Press freedom in the United States was dealt a blow last week with the Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal by two journalists who face jail for refusing to reveal their confidential sources and ignoring subpoenas to testify before a grand jury. The decision has several IFEX members concerned that the decision gives authoritarian regimes further ammunition to justify crackdowns on the press....

Eminent journalist and editorial advisor of the New Indian Express T J S George has been selected for this year's C H Mohammad Koya Journalism Award for his outstanding contribution to the field. The announcement was made by CH Journalism Trust member and Kerala Public Works Ministe M K Muneer at a press conference here today. George been chosen from among a panel of 25 distinguished persons from...

Media types desperate for a sliver of encouraging news about public support can grasp it in the latest State of the First Amendment survey's findings about unnamed sources. The 2005 edition of the poll, commissioned by the First Amendment Center in collaboration with AJR, found that 69 percent of Americans agree with the statement: "Journalists should be allowed to keep a news source confidential...

Judith Miller is an American hero. Forget Ahmed Chalabi and all of those off-target stories about Saddam's WMD. When crunch time came, Miller hung tough. Not for her the cave-in of Time Inc. honcho Norm Pearlstine, who gave up Time reporter Matt Cooper's notes. Not for her the last-minute "waiver" route that Cooper took in deciding to testify before the grand jury investigating who leaked the...

The National Foundation for India has announced seven fellowships of Rs 1 lakh each under its National Media Fellowship Programme. The National Media Fellowship Programme is open for young mid-career journalists, who are interested to take time off from their routine beats to research and publish articles on a wide range of issues that have to do with ordinary Indians striving for a better life...

WASHINGTON -- Attention, fellow journalists: Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has blown our cover. In his argument for why New York Times reporter Judith Miller should be jailed until she tells a grand jury who revealed the name of a CIA operative to her, Fitzgerald stated that "journalists are not entitled to promise complete confidentiality. No one in America is." He's right. But what's...