2005-2014

Reporters Without Borders today called for the immediate release of Syrian journalist Ali Abdallah and his son Mohammad, who were arrested at their home in Ktene, south of Damascus, on 23 March without any explanation being given. "We firmly condemn the arbitrary arrest of Abdallah for the second time in a year," the press freedom organisation said. "We are all the more concerned as we do not know...

Without being too melodramatic, the blog as a disruptive and rebellious medium could be dead. Perhaps the most obvious indication blogs are becoming part of the mainstream is Time magazine's recent decision to hire two high-profile bloggers -- Ana Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan -- to write for the magazine and the Web site. Instead of being dismissed as just forums for online rants or digital...

"She was a wonderful person, kind and loving and can never be replaced." This is how distraught family and friends of Cindy Rajah described her after her tragic death on Thursday. Rajah, 46, was shot and killed by hijackers in Brickfield Road on Thursday afternoon. She worked as an advertising executive for the Post newspaper and was out working when the incident took place. Her brother-in-law...

WASHINGTON - Antitrust regulators are reviewing the McClatchy Co.'s proposed $4.5 billion takeover of Knight Ridder, including its plan to sell 12 newspapers it is acquiring. Although the decision to investigate the proposed deal's effect on competition and prices is fairly routine given its size, the government also apparently is interested in who might buy the Knight Ridder papers McClatchy...

Thousands of pro-government demonstrators yesterday surrounded Nation Tower, headquarters of Kom Chad Luek, to demand the newspaper turn over to the mob a reporter whom they allege wrote a story offensive to the monarchy. Composed of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers as well as members of Caravan of the Poor, a pro-Thaksin organization made up of rural farmers, the mob was dispersed after nearly eight...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Denmark will launch a "massive" campaign to improve its global image, which was tattered after a Danish newspaper published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the prime minister said Friday. Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the campaign was not initiated because of the cartoon crisis but that the uproar had given it additional impetus. "We would have done so anyway. But the...

CNN says it is just thrilled by the transformation of Lou Dobbs–formerly a mild-mannered news anchor noted for his palsy-walsy interviews with corporate CEOs–into a raving populist xenophobe. Ratings are up. It's like watching one of those "makeover" shows that turn nerds into fops or bathrooms into ballrooms. According to the New York Times, this demonstrates "that what works in cable television...

People are being warned about spam e-mails containing BBC News stories designed to trick them into visiting malicious websites. Cyber criminals are using the messages to exploit a recently discovered flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. If users click on the link, they are taken to a fake website that installs a piece of software that can monitor online financial activity. People who receive the...

BAGHDAD, March 30 -- American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted at gunpoint in January, was released Thursday after nearly three months of intensive efforts to free her and public pleas on her behalf from a worldwide chorus of relatives, politicians and religious leaders. "I was treated very well. That's important people know that," Carroll said in an interview broadcast on the TV station run by...

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association voiced outrage today at the three-year prison sentences imposed on journalists U Thaung Sein and Ko Moe Htun for photographing and filming in the new capital, Pyinmana, and thereby allegedly violating article 32 (A) of the Television and Video Act. "It is a disgrace to see journalists arrested and sentenced just for taking pictures on the...