2005-2014

(March 28, 2006) -- Looking back at E&P’s extensive, and often critical, commentary on media coverage of the Iraq war three years ago, I was struck again by how Chris Hedges stands out as a kind of prophet. The longtime war reporter, who decided to sit this one out, was among the few who recognized that taking Baghdad would be the easy part. Let's contrast it with the criminal incompetence of the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called for the immediate release of Ali Abdullah Fayad, journalist from the privately-owned tri-weekly "al Safir", who was kidnapped by an unknown group in Kut, south-east of Baghdad on 21 March 2006. "This kidnapping is part of a wave of abductions which have rapidly increased in these last three months," said Reporters Without Borders. After Jill...

The number of journalists in China has doubled compared with 20 years earlier, official statistics show. Figures released by the General Administration of Press and Publication indicated that more than 700,000 people chose journalism as their career last year, 150,000 of them armed with a journalist certificate. According to the administration, Chinese journalists are increasingly entering the...

Afghan women are a mystery to much of the world, their tales of tragedy, oppression, and occasional joy largely hidden from view. In large part this is because they lack anyone who can speak for them in the media. "If we want to know what is going on with Afghan women, we need to have more female journalists," said Malalai Shinwari, a former BBC reporter turned lawmaker. "A woman living at home is...

TEHRAN (AFP) - In a small cafe in Tehran's smog congested downtown, two disenchanted Iranian journalists have taken a break from their media jobs to serve up strong coffee and milkshakes to former colleagues. After deciding they had had enough of work in the "not so professional" atmosphere of Iran's media, the married couple earlier this month opened their coffee shop in an alley behind the main...

Abdullah Saeed (Fahala) started on Sunday what could be the beginning of a lifelong jail term following his conviction by a judge in the Criminal Court in Male’. The outspoken Minivan journalist was taken immediately from the courtroom to prison after being found ‘guilty’ of ‘disobedience to order’ for refusing to provide the police with a urine sample. The sentence could be a prelude, though, to...

Since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra took office five years ago, dozens of journalists who criticized the government have been fired or sued for libel, television talk shows have been canceled and radio stations yanked off the air. Thaksin, a telecom tycoon-turned-politician, has repeatedly blasted reporters who question his policies as ignorant and unpatriotic. He and his close associates have...

(Comtex Community Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)BRUSSELS, Mar 27, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A Belgian journalist armed with a pistol and plastic explosives came within striking distance of French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during last week's summit of European Union in Brussels. The operation was filmed and was aired on Monday night in the website of news magazine...

Local journalists, long frustrated by what they see as a general lack of access to public documents, are welcoming a suggestion by the Constitutional Review Commission that freedom of the press and access to information receive constitutional protection. "I have to say that it is a pity that we need a constitutional amendment or an amendment to the law at all to ensure what should have been the...

The thugs that attacked reporters, including one from Thanh Nien, who were covering a betting scandal that involved senior officials will be brought to justice, Hanoi police told Thanh Nien Sunday. The police visited Thanh Nien newspaper in Hanoi Sunday after one of its reporters was assaulted Thursday taking pictures of a state official arrested in connection with a multi-million dollar scandal...