2005-2014

On Aug. 14 a computer hacker named Virgil Griffith unleashed a clever little program onto the Internet that he dubbed WikiScanner. It's a simple application that trolls through the records of Wikipedia, the publicly editable Web-based encyclopedia, and checks on who is making changes to which entries. Sometimes it's people who shouldn't be. For example, WikiScanner turned up evidence that somebody...

The ongoing conflict between journalists and newspaper employers has intensified with the Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association (Tidningsutgivarna - TU) extending its proposed lockout to include staff at web publications. Around 100 newspapers have been affected already by the dispute. Arbitration has failed to revive stalled talks over a new collective agreement for some 5,500 newspaper and...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on journalists’ groups around the world to provide support to Peruvian journalists and their families who have been made homeless in the earthquake disaster which shook the country last week. A dog passes next to a semi-submerged pick-up, in an area flooded by waves triggered by Wednesday's quake in Paracas, a popular tourist spot just...

The trial of Igor Velchev for the murder of NTV journalist Ilya Zimin did not begin as scheduled in Ocnita, Moldova, because the four NTV employees who discovered Zimin’s body in his Moscow apartment were not in court. The trial was postponed until October 2. It was the third postponement for the same reason. The Moldovan prosecutor’s office said the NTV journalists were notified by mail that they...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the attempted assassination of broadcast journalist Manuel Kong and regards the incident as a severe threat to media workers’ personal safety as well as a brutal violation of freedom of speech. According to IFJ affiliate, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), Radio DSXN commentator Kong was shot by an...

Independent Cuban journalist Armando Betancourt Reina, who had been imprisoned at the Cerámica Roja Prison in the central city of Camagüey since May 2006, has been released. Betancourt Reina, a reporter for the independent news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana, left prison Monday morning, the US-based Radio Martí reported. Shortly later, Betancourt Reina told the Miami-based group Directorio Democrático...

The Marseille-Provence-Alpes du Sud Press Society is organising the International Award for Freedom of Speech. It will reward a leading article, coverage, survey or interview conveying a free and independent vision. Award amount : 5 000 Euros Every year around the world, many journalists disappear. Some of them have been abducted, imprisoned, tortured or simply shot down. The only crime they have...

(Fortune Magazine) -- How many people visited Yahoo in June? About 133 million in the U.S., says ComScore, a web measurement company. No, says its chief rival, Nielsen//NetRatings, it was 108 million. The difference - 25 million people - is hardly a rounding error. It's larger than the population of Texas. And that's the problem. The Internet bills itself as the most accountable ad medium in...

NEW YORK: While American Journalism Review is apparently $200,000 in debt with threats of closure, its counterpart, the Columbia Journalism Review, is having its best financial year ever, according to Executive Editor Mike Hoyt. Hoyt, who has led the newsroom for four years, says his publication is about $50,000 in the black, with estimates of a $40,000 surplus in 2008. "We feel like we are on a...

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Condemning the Fox News Channel as a warmonger that's agitating for a U.S. attack on Iran, documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald and independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders announced an "online viral video campaign" Wednesday calling on television news organizations "not to follow Fox down the road to war again." Greenwald, the director behind "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on...