2005-2014

NEW DELHI: India's largest media house, The Times of India Group, on Thursday signed an agreement to acquire 100% stake in Vijayanand Printers Ltd (VPL) - which publishes two Kannada newspapers Vijay Karnataka and Usha Kiran, and the English daily Vijay Times. The move is part of Times Group's efforts to deepen its local presence and develop a larger regional identity. "This agreement highlights...

On 14 June 2006, operatives of the State Security Service (sss), Nigeria's intelligence agency, invaded the premises of the country's largest private television network, the Africa Independent Television (ait), in Abuja and arrested Gbenga Mike Aruleba, jost of the popular "Focus On Nigeria" programme. About 12 security agents carried out the raid and arrest at about 8:00 a.m. (local time)...

In attempt to revive an aging but still well-known Internet brand, AOL is turning its Netscape.com site into a collection of links to news articles, submitted by users and expanded upon by a staff of bloggers. AOL, part of Time Warner, has been trying to move away from its rapidly declining Internet access business by building a series of advertising-supported Web sites. Netscape.com, a broad Web...

MOSCOW -- Earlier this month Moscow hosted a congress of the World Association of Newspapers. The organization's president, Gavin O'Reilly, deplored the Russian government's encroachments on media freedom. Then President Vladimir Putin took the podium to respond. The media's situation has grown better, not worse, he said: "From year to year increasingly favorable conditions are emerging in Russia...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush has apologized for teasing a legally blind reporter about wearing sunglasses during a news conference. The incident happened Wednesday at a Rose Garden media briefing when Bush, who was in high spirits, responded to Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten`s raised hand and asked if Wallsten was going to ask his question 'with...

KHARTOUM, June 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the closure of Sudan’s only opposition English language daily, saying freedom of the press was essential for Sudan’s transition to democracy. The Khartoum Monitor, one of three independent dailies in Sudan, was closed and had its licence revoked by a Supreme Court order on Sunday after it said it had suffered weeks of heavy...

Ethiopian journalists forced into exile in neighbouring countries are crying out for global help, saying a state crackdown in their country has made it impossible for the independent press to report anything, including religious issues. "We have been robbed of our right as free journalists," Wondwosen Teklu, an Ethiopian journalist exiled in Kenya told a media conference in Nairobi on 2 May, the...

Over the course of the past year, first in Seoul and then in Moscow, the biggest players in the global newspaper industry have met to discuss ways of coping with a dire reality. Internet aggregators. Satellite TV. Bloggers. Free mass circulation dailies. These and a host of other new media products are the driving forces of what is clearly set to be the biggest transformation in the history of...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, June 15, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's threat to block the renewal of broadcast licenses for privately owned television and radio stations that oppose his government. Chávez said Wednesday that he had ordered a review of licenses for media outlets that supported the 2002 coup attempt against him. He did not name...

More than 1,000 journalists have visited Guantanamo Bay since the U.S. military began locking up suspected al-Qaida and Taliban militants there 4 1/2 years ago. But access has been severely restricted: Journalists could not talk to detainees, they had to be accompanied by a military escort and their photos were censored. Now, the Pentagon has shut down access entirely - at least temporarily -...