2005-2014

In a 17 April 2000 letter to the governor of Jammu and Kashmir state, Girish Chander Saxena, RSF expressed concern about the climate of violence facing the public and private press, especially after the explosion of a landmine near the building that houses the government station Radio Kashmir. RSF asked Girish Chander Saxena to order an inquiry into the incident, in order to identify those...

EVER SINCE THE New York Times Co. announced in late January it would attempt to cash in on the Web investment craze by offering stock in Times Digital Media in an initial public offering, it has been the talk of the industry. The Times, according to Reuters, could raise up to $100 million from new stockholders by creating a "tracking stock" for Times Digital Media. A tracking stock is one that...

IT BEGINS SLOWLY IN October and November and picks up steam in December. At newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations across the country, a designated person begins tracking down answers to a series of questions. Are the rules the same as last year? Is the deadline the same? Any new categories? Is the prize still $1,000, or has it gone up? By January, life becomes insane. Twelve-hour...

In a 29 March 2000 letter to the chief minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal, RSF expressed concern about the sanctions taken against journalist Sukhbir Singh Osan. RSF asked the governor to ensure that the journalist could recover his accreditation with the Punjab authorities. Robert Ménard, RSF's secretary general, reminded the authorities that "Indian laws guarantee press freedom". According...

EACH DAY, the Washington Post's closely guarded news budget is e-mailed across country at 2 p.m. EST to three editors at MSNBC.com's headquarters within the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. The Post sends not only a rundown of what's slated for the following day's edition, but also a list of other Post stories ready to go or in the works. The Washington Post sharing its trade secrets with...

LIKE EVERY would-be entrepreneur, Nick Denton had an idea that kept him up late at night. Finally, tired of the usual 9-to-5, Denton quit his job two years ago and followed the herds into cyberspace. At 33, he's not looking back. "I only wish I had done this sooner, says Denton, an affable Brit. Of course he does. By the time you read this, Denton expects to have sold another chunk of his San...

One of the dreams of the Internet was that it would allow almost anyone to become a publisher. It's debatable whether or not that dream will ever be meaningfully realized, but it certainly seems that anyone who ever wanted to be a media critic can now do it easily online. There are hundreds, and probably thousands of sites on the Internet that republish mainstream media snippets, often with...

Ten years to the day after Time and Warner merged and shocked corporate America, Steve Case, head of AOL, and Gerald Levin, head of Time Warner, announced a blockbuster plan to join forces. Their new corporate title--AOL Time Warner--truly reflects the ascendancy of the Internet and the beginning of a new economic era for the TV industry. Less than two weeks into the new millennium, AOL bet its...

Walter Isaacson awoke early at his home in Bronxville, New York, fifteen miles north of Manhattan in Westchester County. Idly, the editor of Time flipped on an all-news radio station. That's when he learned that his seventy-seven-year-old magazine, and indeed all of Time Warner -- the world's biggest media company -- was being enfolded in the embrace of fifteen-year-old America Online, the...

During the first half of the century just ended, criticism of journalism was relatively simple and well-defined. It meant taking on the newspapers, which in those days presented a fat, inviting target, burdened as many of them were with sensationalism and sacred cows. Will Irwin muckraked the newspaper press as early as 1911. Upton Sinclair used an artifact of prostitution, The Brass Check, as the...