2005-2014

20 August 2006

Situation in Bangladesh only gets worse for journalists

In Bangladesh a journalist doesn't know who is going to attack him/her next. Reckoned to be one of the most dangerous places for a journalist to be in, the country unfailingly lives up to its reputation every few weeks. Barely had the brutal attack on an Indian journalist sunk in, that activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) let loose their ire on a newspaper that is one of its

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20 August 2006

The toll that the conflict took on Lebanese media

As an uneasy truce prevails on the Israel-Lebanon front, it is time for the Lebanese media to take stock of the situation. The month-long operations saw the destruction of basic infrastructure and the imposition of a land, sea and air embargo leading to a massive drop in advertising, distribution problems, and fears of paper supply shortages. SCOURING FOR NEWS: Lebanese civilians collect...

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20 August 2006

Press freedom groups call for Ching’s release

Press freedom organisations have called for the release of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong, who has being tried in a closed-door proceeding in Beijing. His trial on espionage charges began on August 15 and ended late that afternoon without an immediate verdict. "We have seen no evidence that Ching Cheong has committed a crime, and we call for his immediate release," Committee to Protect...

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20 August 2006

Crime reporters come under fire in Brazil

Life for investigative journalists in Brazil is increasingly becoming difficult. This month alone one journalist has been abducted (and subsequently released), one threatened and thus forced into hiding, while a newspaper has been barred by a court to write on a trafficiking case in which investigations are on. GRABBED AT WORK: A television frame grab aired on August 13, 2006, shows undated

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20 August 2006

Tamil media at the receiving end in Sri Lanka

The renewed fighting in Sri Lanka is taking its toll on the press too. This month alone a newspaper delivery agent was killed, a newspaper's office's searched by state security personnel, police bodyguards to an editor withdrawn, and the press virtually barred from reporting on the humanitarian crisis rising out of the conflict. There have been frantic calls to all to leave journalists alone...

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20 August 2006

Concern grows over fate of abducted journalists in Gaza

There is still no sign of the two Fox News Channel journalists abducted in Gaza six days ago. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the journalists from the US television network, and the kidnappers have made no demands yet. A FRANTIC PLEA: Anita McNaught holds a picture of her husband, Fox news cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, as she speaks during a demonstration called...

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20 August 2006

Marketing Reality Check: Blogs, Pods, RSS

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Digital properties may be VC darlings, hot on Wall Street and coveted by advertisers. But try telling that to Dave and Jean Bretzlauf, 57-year-old accountants in a well-to-do-suburb of Denver. Dave has an iPod but no idea what a podcast is. Neither is familiar with RSS. And while they read the online versions of their local papers, they also subscribe to Rocky Mountain News...

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20 August 2006

Maldives releases Latheef; Latheef rejects pardon

Maldivian journalist Jennifer Latheef who was serving a 10-year jail term for terrorism has been pardoned by the government. Latheef has, however, rejected the presidential pardon. ACCUSED OF TERRORISM: The Maldives government announced Jennifer Latheef’s release on August 16. She was jailed for 10 years in October 2005 after being convicted of inciting a riot in 2003. International human rights...

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19 August 2006

Media in Kashmir

Media in Kashmir has come to stay as an instrument of shaping public opinion and as a potential influence on people’s precepts and practices. In the backdrop of the conflict that has dogged every aspect of life in Jammu and Kashmir in a muted way for the better part of the past century and significantly over the past one and a half decades, the media has played the role of a catalyst not so much...

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18 August 2006

Mexico: Arrest of a suspected mastermind in Ortiz Franco murder

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, August 17, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists today urged Mexican authorities to investigate the suspected involvement of Arturo Villarreal in the 2004 killing of a Tijuana newspaper editor. Villarreal was picked up as part of a drug sweep by U.S. security services on August 14. A Mexican prosecutor last year identified Villarreal, who is known by the nickname "El...

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