2005-2014

19 March 2008

Murdoch's Dow Jones ends 40-yr-old deal with AP, pitches for AFP

Dow Jones & Co, recently bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has struck a deal with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to distribute news from the Paris-based agency through its Dow Jones Newswires unit, replacing a partnership of more than 40 years with the Associated Press (AP). Dow Jones Newswires will also expand its global editorial staff as part of a broader investment in financial news, the...

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19 March 2008

Govt allows FDI for the print media to overcome "capital shortage"

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the print media has been allowed to overcome the shortage of capital being faced by the newspaper industry in the country, a Press Trust of India (PTI) report has said. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting (I&B), PR Dasmunsi on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that several Indian companies engaged in publishing newspapers and...

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19 March 2008

Jordan court passes jail terms on five journalists for contenpt of court

A Jordanian court has handed down jail terms of three months each on five newspaper journalists, including two prominent editors, for contempt of court and defamation. Editor Taher al-Adwan and reporter Sahar Qassam of the Arabic daily Al-Arab al-Youm, former Ad-Dustour editor Osama Sharif, and Ad-Dustour reporter Fayez Louzi were sentenced Thursday under the penal code to three months in prison...

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19 March 2008

Sarkozy drops lawsuit against 'Nouvel Observateur' over SMS report

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is dropping a lawsuit against French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur for reporting that he sent a text message to ex-wife Cecilia offering to call off his marriage, a statement by his new wife Carla Bruni said today. Sarkozy last month had lodged the complaint against Le Nouvel Observateur for reporting he had sent a SMS to Cecilia eight days before his marriage to ex...

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19 March 2008

Call for release of Argentinian journalist held without trial for eight months

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called for the immediate release of Argentina's Córdoba province-based journalist Néstor Pasquini, who has been held without trial for eight months on charges of inciting violence, aggravated arson, and causing minor injuries during a riot he was covering in a small town. The owner of local radio station FM Show and correspondent of the Red Panorama radio...

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19 March 2008

China blocks Tibet coverage, Chinese journalists stifled as unrest continues

With international attention focused on the unfolding violence in Tibet, the Chinese media is confronting massive censorship, leaving the Chinese public largely in the dark. The Chinese government has barred or expelled virtually all international reporters from the region, and the state media presents the government’s perspective, which blames the Dalai Lama for the violence, the New York-based...

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19 March 2008

Hundreds of journalists forced into exile in five years since US-led invasion of Iraq

The first-ever detailed report on the plight of Iraqi journalists who have been forced into exile was released by Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) today, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Most of these journalists fled to Jordan or Syria after receiving threats or surviving murder attempts. Hundreds are trying to live a normal life again in Amman or...

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18 March 2008

Web has effect on US journalism; 'old media' winning new audience

The mainstream media in the US isn't really losing audience as much as it had been hyped. Certainly not because of people switching over to the Internet as a news source. The Internet has profoundly changed journalism, but not necessarily in ways that were predicted even a few years ago. It was believed at one point that the Net would democratise the media, offering many new voices, stories and

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18 March 2008

Editor held incommunicado by intelligence agency for past 11 days in DRC

The editor of a small-circulation fortnightly is being detained for no known reason since March 7 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Nsimba Embete Ponte, editor of L’Interprète, is being held incommunicado in a building used by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Kinshasa. “The security forces have no grounds for acting in this way,” Paris...

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18 March 2008

RK Sharma convicted in Shivani Bhatnagar murder case; sentence on Thursday

A Delhi fast track court Tuesday convicted suspended IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case of 1999 along with three other co-accused. While Sharma has been convicted under Sections 302, 120B and 201of the Indian Penal Code, three others—Sri Bhagwan, Satya Prakash and the alleged hired killer Pradeep Sharma—have been found guilty of murder and destruction of evidence...

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