2005-2014

Political influence is threatening France's media freedom: courageous journalists are harassed and prosecuted, while insubordinate chief editors are fired. He strokes her chin and she looks deeply into his eyes. Both smile and beam. The latest photo-story, covering French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy's Father's Day outing with his wife Cécilia, in the glossy magazine Paris Match, shows a...

THE blogging bubble has been taking on serious air of late. Last week, PaidContent.org, a blog that covers digital media, held its first mixer. It was, by all reports, filled to the brim with money and content guys speed dating on the way to marriage. Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker Media, was there, but he wasn't looking for love or money. "It made me want to move to Budapest, batten down the...

Perhaps it’s time to contemplate a journalism rehab centre. Thanks to 24X7 television, there is a media institute in almost every corner of the city who promise anything and everything to meet the so called “rising demand for journalists”. But do degrees in mass communication and journalism give you an edge over others? They do. At least what the students queuing up outside journalism institutes...

EIGHT armed men raided and burned a radio station founded by the party-list group Bayan Muna in the town proper of Baggao in Cagayan early Sunday morning, a police official said. The men barged into the premises of Radio Cagayano DWRC at 2 a.m. Sunday and held at least six personnel, including the station manager Susan Mapa and technician Richard Remegio. Jefferson Soriano, regional director of...

Moscow - Russia has refused a visa to a British journalist well-known for his coverage of Chechnya and the turbulent Caucasus, citing the needs of "state security". Thomas de Waal, who has previously worked in Moscow for the English-language Moscow Times, the BBC and the Times, said on Monday he had been due to attend the presentation of a Russian version of his book on the conflict in Nagorno...

BEIJING: A Chinese draft law that threatens to fine news media for reporting on "sudden incidents" without permission applies to foreign as well as domestic news organizations, an official involved in preparing the legislation said Monday. The law, now under consideration by the legislature, calls for fines of up to $12,500 if news media produce unauthorized reports on outbreaks of disease...

When a press freedom violation takes place in Pakistan, the government reacts by stating, “The press is free in the country.” This country, with a population of 150 million Muslims is, most of the time, ruled by a powerful US-backed military establishment. A similar statement was issued again last month when the dead body of a missing tribal journalist was found in a tribal region after his...

The line separating editorial content and advertising in magazines may have been blurred even more with a film ad in the latest issue of Premiere, the movie magazine. Premiere's July/August 2006 issue includes a two-page, bright yellow ad for "Little Miss Sunshine," a new film from Fox Searchlight Pictures. The right-hand page contains the usual elements of a print ad for film (a cast list, some...

When the young British journalist talks of operating in a "good patch", they often mean their area has enough crime problems to keep the local courts busy and themselves in bylines. Well, try this one for size: Grozny, Chechnya. Home to a conflict that over the past seven years has seen near civil war and the emergence of brutal militias, thousands of people killed and countless others...

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's media watchdog has banned a national weekly newspaper for "inciting revolt" and defaming the government, the paper said on Saturday, reviving concerns about press freedom in the West African country. L'Opinion is the first publication to be banned by Niger's CSC independent communications regulator, but the ruling comes after Niger in April said it would stop foreign...