2005-2014

27 April 2006

Egyptian police free on bail Jazeera reporter

CAIRO, April 27 (Reuters) - Egyptian police released on bail Al Jazeera television's Cairo bureau chief after he was accused of spreading false information while reporting on the recent Sinai bombings, the Al Jazeera office in Cairo said on Thursday. An Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman said earlier Hussein Abdel Ghani had been taken in for questioning after reporting an explosion in the...

More
27 April 2006

Reporter remains silent on sources, fined a third time

The Taiwan High Court fined a United Daily News reporter NT$30,000 for a third day in a row yesterday after he again refused to identify his sources for a news story that is part of an insider stock trading case. Kao Nien-yi remained silent on the question of who gave him the information that he reported on March 16. The story related to an insider trading scandal in which senior government...

More
27 April 2006

Cuba denounces US media aggression

New York: Cuba has accused the US of having increased funds to promote a "radio-electronic war" against the island nation. During debates at the UN General Assembly´s information committee, Cuban Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca noted that the US' 2006 budget allocated $37 million for anti-Cuban propaganda through its Radio-TV Marti, $10 million more than in 2004, Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency...

More
27 April 2006

Freedom of press victim of new laws

THE dramatic decline of press freedom in Australia has continued over the past year despite hard-won progress such as landmark national defamation laws. The 2006 Australian Press Freedom Report, to be released publicly tomorrow night, says the few bright spots, such as defamation and moves to give limited legal privilege to journalists who refuse to reveal a confidential source, had to be seen...

More
27 April 2006

BBC announces big online revamp

The BBC has unveiled its Creative Future strategy and its plans for a revamp of its online arm which could see it taking on the likes of MySpace. The move towards a more tech-savvy BBC is prompted by the broadcaster's fears it may be failing a younger audience who are shunning TV in favour of spending time on the internet. Research by the BBC found that 60 per cent of those aged between 16 and 24...

More
27 April 2006

MediaNews, Hearst buy former Knight Ridder papers

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After being forced to the auction block by grumpy shareholders and snapped up by McClatchy Co., Knight Ridder has one more indignity to witness: McClatchy is selling off of the newspaper that once held all of Knight Ridder's digital dreams, The San Jose Mercury News. MediaNews Group, publisher of The Denver Post and papers from California to Vermont, will acquire the...

More
27 April 2006

Media in Middle East lack credibility due to govt ownership

DUBAI – Only a miniscule percentage of the hundreds of newspapers in the Arab world enjoy credibility. And this, because most of the media establishments are owned directly or indirectly by governments – who do not want the truth to be told. This was the blunt criticism made by an acclaimed Arab journalist, Mohammed Jasem Al Saqr, Editor of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas, while addressing the Arab...

More
26 April 2006

Taiwan newspaper says court violating press freedom

A mass-circulation Chinese-language daily newspaper vowed on Tuesday to file an appeal with the Taipei District Court against a ruling that fined one its reporters for refusing to disclose the source of his information while testifying in a "stock vultures" case. The paper accused the court of violating the principles of freedom of the press. United Daily News reporter Kao Nien-yi was fined NT$30...

More
26 April 2006

Police prevent "Independent" staff from reopening the paper in the Gambia

New York, April 25, 2006 - Two vanloads of police officers prevented The Independent from reopening today and briefly detained an employee who came to unlock the offices of the Gambian private newspaper. The police action came despite statements from National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and other government officials that the paper would be allowed to publish following a month-long ban, local...

More
26 April 2006

Protestors attack Peru radio station over "one-sided" coverage

New York, April 24, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an attack by 700 protesters on a radio station in southern Peru. The crowd stormed the offices of Radio Sudamericana in the city of Juliaca on Friday, angered by what they called the station's one-sided coverage of a scandal surrounding a local mayor. A small group assaulted reporter Feliciano Sonco Puma, who was covering the...

More