2005-2014

Philip Bennett, the Washington Post's managing editor, is stepping down this week after four years as the paper's second-ranking news executive, the paper reported. Bennett was a candidate to be executive editor after Leonard Downie Jr announced that he was leaving last spring after 17 years in the job. But in July, Post publisher Katharine Weymouth chose Brauchli, less than three months after...

Bolivian President Evo Morales is planning to launch a state-run daily newspaper later this month which would act as a counterbalance to the "anti-government" local media, Reuters has reported. "The state's going to have its own newspaper and I've told the media team that we should launch it on January 22," Morales was quoted as saying by the official news agency ABI on Sunday. During a radio...

At least seven people, three of them policemen and two journalists, were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the Government Polytechnic College near an imambargah in Dera Ismail Khan district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on January 4, the Dawn newspaper has reported. The suicide attack followed an explosion of low intensity. Over 20 people were injured, most of...

The number of newspapers in the US offering some form of user-generated content has doubled up. Overall, 58 per cent of newspapers offered some form of user generated content in 2008 compared to 24 per cent in 2007. In fact, 58 per cent of newspapers allowed for user generated photos in 2008, while 18 per cent accepted video and 15 per cent articles. The number of newspaper websites allowing users

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has approved a new media law despite local and international pressure to reject the legislation critics say undermines democracy, according to news reports. The amended media law provides for a new communications commission with powers to regulate broadcasting content and impose tougher fines or jail terms for press offences. "I have assented to the bill," Kibaki said...

The Lima-based Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) has filed a complaint before the District Magistracy Control Office (Oficina Distrital de Control de la Magistratura, ODICMA) against judge Teresa Cabrera, who sentenced journalist Magaly Medina and television producer Ney Guerrero to serve prison terms in a defamation case brought against them by football player Paolo Guerrero. The sentence, which...

A Davao broadcaster was released on December 23, 2008 after having spent almost two years in prison in Davao del Norte following his conviction on charges of libel, according to Manila-based Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR). Davao is a province located approximately 946 km south of Manila. Libel is a criminal offence in the Philippines. Alexander Adonis, formerly of Bombo Radyo...

Over thirty armed men belonging to the Sindh Nationalist Front (SNF) political party in Pakistan stormed the offices of Sindhi-language daily Awami Awaz and threatened its staff on New Year's Day, Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has reported. The intruders, who were led by Anwar Gujjar, SNF's media coordinator, held the staff hostage for about half an hour and inquired into the whereabouts of the...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has welcomed the ten-point agreement between the Nepal government and the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), which led to the cancellation of a nationwide demonstration over growing attacks on the media. In signing the agreement on January 5, Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara reportedly said that the government...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has expressed concern over a murder attempt on Filipino radio journalist Cherie “Katribung Che” Indelible on January 2 in Kalibo, in Aklan province (in the northwest of the Visayas region). Indelible works for local state-owned radio dyYM (Community Broadcasting Information System) as news director and programme host. “With five journalists murdered, 2008 was one of...