2005-2014

UK-based European newspaper owner, Mecom, has sold its titles in Germany to one of that country's oldest publishers for €152m ($204m), Financial Times has reported. The company, which is chaired by David Montgomery, former chief executive of the Mirror Group, is burdened with net debt of about €650m and has been in danger of breaching its banking covenants. It should, however, scrape through the...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed recommendations released by the French government in its Green Paper on press reforms in France. The Green Paper, published on January 8, contains 90 recommendations to reform the current functioning of the press in France. An important proposal concerns existing authors' rights to remuneration for multiple-use of a journalistic work...

Algerian authorities have been urged to ensure an effective investigation into a murder attempt against Hafnaoui Ghoul, a journalist on the daily Al-Wassat and a human rights activist, at his home in Djelfa (250km south of Algiers) overnight on January 6-7. A group of hooded assailants armed with a knife were lying in wait for him, gagged him and ripped his clothes. They fled without being...

A woman reporter who worked for a local radio station in a troubled region of southeast Nepal has been stabbed to death by a group of unidentified assailants. Uma Singh, also a member of a rights group, Women's Human Rights Defenders Network, Dhanusha, was attacked late on Sunday while she was sitting in her home in Janakpur, 98 km southeast of Kathmandu. A group of 14 people attacked Singh, a 24...

Malaysia has withdrawn a ban on a Catholic newspaper's Malay-language edition imposed in a row over the use of the word "Allah", an official said Thursday. The decision was made after the Herald weekly threatened to sue the government, the Home Ministry's publications control unit secretary Che Din Yusof told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "We received their letter. We have reviewed the decision and...

A group of investors, led by Vinay Chhajlani, CEO of Webdunia.com India Pvt Ltd, and Jehangir S Pocha, former editor of Businessworld, has bought INX News, the company that runs English news channel NewsX. Chhajlani and Pocha have formed a company called Indi Media for the purpose. Business Standard, quoting industry sources, pegged the deal at Rs 50 crore. Commenting on the sale, Indrani Mukerjea...

Sun-Times Media Group Inc plans to close 12 weekly newspapers in suburban Chicago and has asked its union employees to take a cut in compensation as part of cost-cutting measures brought on by declining advertising revenue, the Associated Press (AP) has eported. The company, which publishes the Chicago-Sun Times, also wants to lay off up to 15 employees in suburban newsrooms, a union official told...

The abductors of Canadian freelance journalist Beverly Giesbrecht in Pakistan have made ransom demands, according to Canadian Press news agency. The Pakistani International News website, citing unnamed sources, reported that the abductors want the equivalent of about $150,000 and the release of their colleagues from the Bagram jail in Afghanistan, in exchange for the release of Beverly Giesbrecht...

Hearst Corp, one of the largest US publishers, is seeking a buyer for its Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper within 60 days after losing $14 million last year amid dwindling circulation and advertising revenue, according to news reports. The privately held magazine and newspaper publishing company will seek a buyer for the 145-year-old daily newspaper, as well as its interest in a joint...

A three-year prison sentence has been handed down to Lewis Medjo, managing editor of Cameroonian weekly La Détente libre, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. He has been in Douala central prison in the west of the country since September 22, 2008. Medjo was found guilty on January 7 of “spreading false news” and sentenced by the Douala court to three years in prison and a fine of two...