2005-2014

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today urged President Mamadou Tandja of Niger to take strong action for the release of two journalists accused of criminal offences following their coverage of the Tuareg rebellion in Niger. "We are very worried about the continued detention of our colleagues and the serious charges they face stemming from their professional work,"...

Siham Mustafa sits behind a radio microphone and clutches a piece of paper. She is ready to fight. Earlier in the morning, al Qaeda in Iraq had hacked her radio station's Web site and posted a letter promising "to kill everyone from Radio Dijla." It was the latest act of aggression against the renegade news and talk radio station that has overcome remarkable odds to remain one of the country's few...

Reporters Without Borders today expressed its deep concern at threats and attacks by elected officials against journalists in several parts of the country throughout November, including a murder attempt, and slammed government silence on the issue. The mayor of Huari in the west, his armed henchmen and several municipal officials came close to killing journalist José Ramírez Villacorta in an...

Reporters Without Borders condemns an arson attack early today on the printing press of the Sunday Leader media group, which is located in a high security area outside Colombo. The approximately 15 gunmen who staged the attack must have had support within the security forces, the press freedom organisation said. "Armed men have once again attacked a independent news media in a high security area...

Reporters Without Borders today called on the authorities to stop harassing journalists working for the Dubai-based satellite TV station Al-Arabiya. Two of the station’s journalists have been detained in the past three weeks after covering anti-government demonstrations. “This is not the first time that journalists trying to report on popular discontent have been prevented from working by the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. media industry is on the brink of a second downturn in a decade, one that could accelerate the divisions between fast-growing targeted advertising and traditional formats aimed at mass audiences. Since the last advertising recession following the Internet bust in 2000, the world's largest media companies have tried to adapt to deep technological changes, from the rise...

November 21, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A representative for a respected Moscow-based rights group has linked the recent murder of a prominent Kyrgyz journalist to Uzbekistan's presidential election scheduled for next month. Alisher Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek whose reports frequently criticized the authorities in neighboring Uzbekistan, was gunned down in southern Kyrgyzstan on October 24. Vitalii Ponomarev of...

NEW YORK, Nov 21 (IPS) - Nearly 500 journalists have been murdered in the last 15 years, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and about 85 percent of those crimes have gone unpunished. On Tuesday, CPJ honoured five journalists who embody courage in the face of censorship with its 2007 International Press Freedom Awards. The situation in the countries from which...

The new, wholly owned Internet subsidiary of HT Media Ltd, Firefly eVentures Ltd has acquired social networking site Desimartini.com in an attempt to enter one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian Internet space. Terms were not being disclosed, though HT Media said it was for less than $10 million (Rs 39.3 crore). “Everything is becoming localised and as broadband penetration improves, we...

LAHORE: Political pundit and talk show host Dr Shahid Masood appeared live from Dubai on Geo News last Saturday. This was no ordinary broadcast. Geo, which had been beaming worldwide from the Arab emirate since its inception in 2002, had been verbally informed that it was being shut down. “We are proud of this moment,” said Masood, visibly shaken as a clock counted down the minutes to the...