2005-2014

Senior producer Michael Mosettig is running through his lineup for tonight's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" when a colleague darts into his office and exclaims, "They've just beheaded a hostage." Mosettig doesn't lunge for the phone to deploy reporters or scramble crews for sensational reaction shots. Instead, he thinks a moment and then asks, "What can we say about that?" Five hours later...

RSF has condemned a threat to the privacy of Internet cafe users in Karnataka state, southern India, where the governor is poised to pass new regulations forcing Internet cafes to provide police with a register of their clients' names and addresses. Similar measures are being studied in Maharashtra state. "Rules that are about to be adopted in Karnataka and Maharashtra states do not observe...

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Saturday's attack on photographers Rafiq Maqbool of The Associated Press, and Amin War of the national newspaper The Tribune, who were beaten by police while covering a violent demonstration in Srinagar, the summer capital of war-torn Kashmir. Maqbool and War were photographing as many as 100 activists from the militant separatist group, the Democratic...

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has initiated the second phase of the Impact Multiplier study, which measures how print and television work on the basis of the Impact Multiplier theory. The theory assumes that when two media are taken into account the combined impact is more than the sum total of the individual impacts of the two. The findings of the first phase of the study was released a year...

In the news business, it is often easier to make headlines than money. Prannoy Roy is unusual in that he does both. Last year he created waves in India by jumping off Rupert Murdoch's Star network where his New Delhi TV had provided 24-hour rolling news for five years. "The first line of our contract read 'editorial control remains with NDTV'. When we came to renewing it, Star wanted to run things...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, has today welcomed recent steps taken by the Indian Government, which have meant greater press freedom for journalists in India. The IFJ welcomes the announcement by the newly elected Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of an Ordinance to repeal the Prevention of...

What prompted me to write this article was an item on the BBC website that exemplified all that is fundamentally wrong with the corporation’s coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The item, entitled "Settlers move into east Jerusalem" from March 31 this year, describes "angry demonstrators", "clashes between local Palestinians and police", and "angry Palestinians…throwing stones at the new...

In Indian newspapers, Page 3 makes a clear demarcation of froth from hard news. Yet, the thin supplements that chronicle cocktail parties and gossip from the world of glitterati manage to attract a lot of attention (not to mention cash returns) from the popularity circuit. Observers are of the opinion that India’s emerging Page 3 culture reflects two distinct dimensions of an aspirational society...

Classifieds mean ‘big money’ for newspapers. With small business players having the moolah, print houses are gearing up to provide them with innovative options. >From help desks to tips on how to make their ads more effective, classifieds have shifted from the main dailies to more creative supplements. No longer are the classifieds merely ROL (run-on-lines), new changes such as maps (in to-let and...

Two journalist from India and one from Sri Lanka are the winners of the 2004 Journalism for Tolerance Prize for South Asia, awarded by the International Federation of Journalists. The prize, supported by the European Commission, was created to promote tolerance, combat racism and discrimination and contribute to an understanding of cultural, religious and ethnic differences. Winners are selected...