2005-2014

NEARLY a year ago Ethiopia was viewed by western donors as reform-minded, progressive, and on a path to growth and political liberalisation. Today it is state of repression and fear. As a result of a massive crackdown on the opposition and the press, more than a dozen journalists are in prison on charges that could bring the death penalty, according to a recent report released by the New York...

BANGKOK, Thailand -- 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...

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...

LONDON, England -- An anonymous Iraqi woman has been nominated for a major literary award for her Internet blog account of the impact of war on ordinary Iraqi people. "Baghdad Burning" by a 20-something university graduate, who uses the pen name Riverbend, was among the titles announced Monday in the competition for the 30,000-pound ($52,000) Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. The prize -- the...

With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids, starting as early as tomorrow, for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard. The goal is not to topple a king but to become one – a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of...

Encyclopaedia Britannica has reopened the debate over how its accuracy stacks up against that of its online rival, Wikipedia. The publisher of the venerable encyclopedia this week released a scathing 20-page rebuttal to a December article in the journal Nature that tallied errors in both Britannica and Wikipedia and found that the web upstart more than held its own. The experts who reviewed...

As Argentina remembered the March 24, 1976 coup that began Latin America's worst-ever military dictatorship, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) paid homage to all journalists who fell victim to what the military called 'el proceso,' which continued till 1983. Those who disappeared or were murdered during the final years of the preceding Peronist government (1973-76) were included in the tribute. THE

Independent journalists in many countries throughout the Americas continue to face violence, government harassment and an array of legal attacks that have constrained their abilities to exercise fully their rights to free expression, the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has concluded during its annual mid-year meeting. ALWAYS RED ALERT: Policemen patrolling in voilence-ridden Nuevo Laredo

The release of two journalists in Venezuela during the past few days even as they await trial provides an opportunity to take another look at the country's press laws, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. OVER-RIDING POPULARITY: Columnist Ibéyise Pacheco is accompanied by supporters as she walks to court to turn herself in, in response to a warrant for her arrest in Caracas, Venezuela

The new repressive resolution of Uzbekistan that targets journalists working for foreign news media who dare to criticise government policies has found its first victim. THERE'S THE FOREIGN HAND: Protestors demonstrating against the Andijan incident in UK. The new media restrictions follow a government crackdown on independent journalists since foreign media carried news of a May 13, 2005 massacre