From 27 November to 2 December 2008, the International Press Institute (IPI) conducted a high-level mission to Dhaka, Bangladesh to assess the country’s media environment as it prepares for national elections, scheduled for 29 December, as well as to elicit commitments from the heads of the two main political parties to support the right of journalists to report on the general elections without
During the past year, ninety-five journalists in 32 countries paid with their lives for exercising their profession. This figure, according to the 2008 Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) report, is lower than the record 115 journalists killed last year, but this drop of 17.5 per cent is solely due to an improvement in security in Iraq. On average, nearly two journalists were killed every week in the
Media coverage of car crashes may harm rather than help public health. The media tends to obscure the bigger picture of motor-vehicles crashes as a leading cause of injury and death—and the number-one killer of young adults—by presenting car crashes as episodic, human interest stories. This type of coverage, according to two new studies published in the US-based National Safety Council's 'Journal
For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq is the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history. Worldwide, CPJ found that 41 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2008
Fear might be holding Jordanians from exploiting the margin of freedoms they have. On several occasions, the Jordanian regime, in the words of King Abdullah, reiterated the need for a free press. Jordan promulgated the only law in the Arab countries that allows access to information. However, journalists are still repressed, laws and regulations have not changed and the executive authority has not
A veteran crime reporter José Armando Rodríguez’s murder has been instrumental in the launch of a nationwide campaign to protect journalists in Mexico. In November 2008, Rodríguez was shot dead at his home in Ciudad Juárez on the Texas border. With the government doing little to protect journalists, ARTICLE 19 and National Centre for Social Communication (CENCOS) have launched their own campaign
If state impunity itself over the scores of unsolved murder cases of journalists in Russia was not enough, press freedom groups now have to even prove that the killings were indeed murders. The death of Magomed Yevloyev, who succumbed to injuries in hospital after being shot on the temple while in police custody on August 31, had evoked criticism against the government and the police from
Justice still eludes Radio Echo 2000 journalist, Brignol Lindor, who was murdered in the southwestern town of Petit-Goâve, Haiti in 2001. Two men implicated in the murder were given life sentences in December 2007. Seven others, convicted in absentia of Linder’s murder on January 23 this year, are still on the run. Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) hopes the appointment of Lindor’s
A total of 23 journalists remained jailed in connection with their work in Sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds held without charge, according to the annual report released of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Thirteen journalists were held in Eritrea, which was the fourth jailer of journalists worldwide behind China, Cuba and Burma. The survey found more Internet journalists jailed worldwide
Heads have begun to roll in the Australian media industry with the chief executive of FairFax Media Limited, David Kirk, putting in his papers last week. Kirk left the 120-year old media giant after serving three years in the organisation that is currently facing a shrinking advertising revenue and a collapsing share price in the face of a severe economic meltdown. Kirk’s resignation came as a
