2005-2014

McClatchy Co. has agreed to sell Philadelphia's major daily newspapers and web site Philly.com to a group of local investors for $562 million, most of which will be borrowed from banks. "We got it," said a jubilant Brian P. Tierney as he rushed through The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News lobby this afternoon to a meeting with publisher Joe Natoli. "We signed every line." Tierney, a...

The guitar strums and a male voice intones: "I always tell myself, just a half hour. But six hours later I’m still on." The chorus kicks in: "MySpace is the place where I can go to be free. MySpace is the place where I can go to read about me . . . " The song is a satirical rock track written by a Los Angeles band called The Fresh which, like many others, uses the hugely popular social networking...

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Internet search engine Topix.net and The Associated Press are teaming up in an attempt to send more visitors to newspaper sites responsible for breaking stories that are picked up across the Web. As part of a 15-month agreement to be announced Tuesday, the AP will identify the stories that local papers contribute to the news cooperative so Topix's search engine can do a better...

The Voice of America's bureau in Baghdad has been closed for the past six months, ever since the government-funded agency withdrew its only reporter in Iraq after she was fired upon in an ambush and her security guard was later killed. All Western news organizations have struggled with the dangerous conditions in Iraq, which have led to such high-profile incidents as the kidnapping of Christian...

When Indian-administered Kashmir's first woman's magazine, She, was launched in Srinagar last month, a lot of people went to the vendors to get their copies. But they came away disappointed because the magazine - which is not connected to the Western glossy of the same name - was meant only for complimentary circulation. But in spite of that, She has attracted more than a normal share of interest...

(CMFR/IFEX) - Barely a month after a receiving death threat, a hard-hitting radio commentator was shot dead on 22 May 2006 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan province, 586 kilometers south of Manila. Fernando "Dong" Batul, a radio journalist working for Palawan-based radio station dyPR, was killed in the early morning by two unidentified gunmen, who shot him repeatedly, just 200 meters from the station...

MIAMI, Florida (May 23, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today described as "a serious attack on press freedom" the sentencing of Uruguayan journalist Gustavo Escanlar Patrone to three months in prison on a libel charge. Criminal Court Judge Roberto Timbal handed down the sentence on May 18 after Public Prosecutor Enrique Möller called for the prison term. The sentence was...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Hamada Abdul Latif, the correspondent of the independent weekly "Al Karama" in the province of El-Dakahleya, who was arrested on 21 May 2006 while covering peasants being evicted in Dekernis, 150 km north of Cairo. He is accused of "taking photographs without permission" and "confronting the authorities." "The charges do not in...

(MISA/IFEX) - The secretary of the North West District Council (NWDC), Paulos Nkoni, says he intends to ban the weekly "The Ngami Times" of Maun (northwestern Botswana) from reporting anything about his Council "after being pressured by councilors and staff". "The Ngami Times" Managing Editor Norman Chandler told MISA-Botswana that the looming ban was due to a belief that the newspaper was not...

This weekend, the Tunisian authorities demonstrated once more their complete disregard for human rights and freedom of expression. On May 20-21, the Tunisian branch of Amnesty International (AI) was holding its General Assembly in the Amilcar Hotel, in Tunis. They had invited Mr.Yves Steiner, board member of International Amnesty Switzerland, to participate in the General Assembly. In the early...