2005-2014

16 October 2008

Nikolas Sarkozy proposals on French press raise concerns over media independence

French President Nikolas Sarkozy's comments about the state of the print media in the country has drawn criticism from journalists. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), says it is worried about some proposals made by Sarkozy as he launched a national discussion on print media. After the launch of the "Etats généraux...

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15 October 2008

Journalist arrested during Republican meet faces prison for parole violation

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is asking for the judge to show clemency for journalist Jason Nicholas, independent photographer for the New York Post, currently in jail in Rikers Island, New York for parole violation. Jason Nicholas is scheduled for another parole hearing in front of an administrative judge on October 15. He was one of over 40 journalists arrested while covering the Republican...

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15 October 2008
Hamas reinforces control over Gaza media, introduces new accreditation system

Hamas reinforces control over Gaza media, introduces new accreditation system

Hams has announced a new system of accreditation for all telecommunications companies, Internet service providers, broadcast media and news agencies based in the Gaza Strip, which has been controlled by it since June 2007, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Yusef Al-Mansi, the Hamas government’s minister of communication and information technology, told Paris-based RSF that the aim of...

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15 October 2008

Apparent attempt to poison Politkovskaya family lawyer in Strasbourg

Russian lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, who represents the family of slain Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been the target of an apparent poisoning in Strasbourg, France, press freedom organisations have said. This has come days before she was due to appear in a Moscow court for pretrial proceedings for three suspects charged in Politkovskaya’s October 2006 slaying. “We are shocked by...

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15 October 2008

Yet another US reporter fights order to answer questions about sources

A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter seeking to protect the identity of unidentified sources is asking two judges to stop a deposition intended to reveal who leaked information to him about the investigation of a prosecutor, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Some details from the AP report: David Ashenfelter of the Detroit Free Press is scheduled to give testimony in a deposition Thursday. A...

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15 October 2008

Vietnam jails investigative reporter who wrote about state corruption

A Hanoi court has convicted two journalists of "abusing democratic freedoms" for their reporting on a corruption scandal in the country's transportation ministry. The court Wednesday sentenced journalists Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, to two years in prison, and Nguyen Van Hai, 33, to one year on probation. Chien was convicted of "abusing freedom and democracy" at the end of a two-day trial at the Hanoi...

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15 October 2008
Number of 'embedded' US journalists reporting from Iraq has dwindled sharply, says WP

Number of 'embedded' US journalists reporting from Iraq has dwindled sharply, says WP

The number of foreign journalists reporting from Baghdad has been declining sharply, says a Washington Post report. The number of journalists travelling with US forces in Iraq has plummeted in the past year. US military officials say they "embedded" journalists 219 times in September 2007. Last month, the number dwindled to 39. Of the dozen US newspapers and newspaper chains that maintained full...

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14 October 2008

Newspaper editor of smalltime Mexican town abducted and killed

Miguel Angel Villa Gómez Valle, editor of Noticias de Michoacán, a daily newspaper based in Lázaro Cárdenas, in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán was abducted and killed last week, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Villa Gómez’s bullet-riddled body was found October 10 morning in a refuse dump, less than 12 hours after he went missing. “The list of kidnappings and execution...

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14 October 2008
Azerbaijan President Aliyev continues to dominate state media’s electoral coverage

Azerbaijan President Aliyev continues to dominate state media’s electoral coverage

As Azerbaijan gears up for the forthcoming elections in October, President Ilham Aliyev continues to dominate the state-owned media landscape. The president’s visits to various regions of the country and the government’s diplomatic activities continued to be the leading stories in state-owned media. Election coverage has also been plentiful, but it focused mainly on the preparations being carried

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14 October 2008
US economic crisis catches up with newspapers, online ad revenues down

US economic crisis catches up with newspapers, online ad revenues down

The US economic crisis is beginning to hit its newspaper industry. After 17 back-to-back quarters of ballooning growth, online revenue at newspaper sites is falling, the New York Times has reported. In the second quarter this year, it was down 2.4 per cent compared with last year, to $777 million, according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). It was the only year-over-year drop since...

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