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IT was about 1963 when Miklós Vajda's stroll was interrupted and he was summoned to the police station "to explain to the uniformed thugs what I was actually doing." In those days, "Being educated, politically suspect and jobless was no joke." Vajda, who described the era in the fall issue of The Hungarian Quarterly, had to "prove to any policeman that I was not some idling truant, a 'parasite on...

THE SABC no longer apologises for its blatant promotion of the African National Congress almost every night on its various news bulletins, flashing the ANC’s logo and flag more than any news item on its agenda. The recent complaint of unfair treatment by the Democratic Alliance (DA) elicited the following response from SABC group CE Dali Mpofu: "Equitable coverage does not mean we give every party...

BAGHDAD, Jan 26 (IPS) - Journalists covering Iraq have run into some sort of balance of troubles. During the days leading up to the war in Iraq in the spring of 2003, many foreign correspondents travelled to Baghdad. Journalists knew war was imminent, and news bureaus scrambled to position their reporters to cover the story. As the war unfolded, journalists from all over the world were thrown...

The Tokyo District Court dismissed a journalist's suit Wednesday over the press club system and government discrimination against freelance reporters, ruling media access to court proceedings does not fall under freedom of the press. Yu Terasawa, 38, had demanded 2.48 million yen on grounds that his access to the court system was limited because he was not a member of the "kisha kurabu" (reporter...

Has winter come for the newspaper industry? Although the question has not raised serious debate, and some newspapers are still expanding, many media insiders have joined counterparts in Western countries as they cry over declining readership. The following figures offer a current sketch of the newspaper industry: There were 1,926 newspapers in China as of July 2005, among which 49.7 per cent are...

The chief editor of the Taipei City Government's English-language Web site was dismissed yesterday after a column offering tips on how to attract women touched off media frenzy and drew complaints from some residents. After the column, "Macking in Taipei," described as a guide to attract women "for guys who want to meet Cinderella," sparked criticism that it was too provocative to be on a...

With the Belarusian authorities increasing pressure on independent media in recent months, some newspapers are being published and printed abroad. One of those, the independent daily "Narodnaya volya," is being published in the Russian city of Smolensk and then transported to Minsk. The authorities have made life difficult for the paper -- a recent print run was kept for days at the border -- but...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- Chivalry and black-framed glasses may fly in New York City, but it's a different game in Baghdad. Two female reporters from the Los Angeles Times had graciously agreed to give me a lift from the International Zone to my hotel. (As the London Telegraph's Oliver Poole told me back at CPIC, "It's a close knit group in Baghdad, and everyone there looks out for each other -- especially...

"All kidnappings and assassinations are completely rejected... especially when kidnapping a journalist. Journalists are here to tell the world about the occupation so kidnapping a journalist is going to hide the truth … This journalist; Jill Carroll... is one of the great journalists who are against the occupation. She is considered one of the best journalists who stood against the American...

BAGHDAD, 25 January (IRIN) - Local journalists say they are unable to write freely about politics due to threats from insurgents and unknown sources. Khalid Samim of the Iraqi Journalists Association (IJA) said the association had received more than 80 reports of threats against journalists from confirmed insurgents since the war began, and more than 100 from unknown sources. Threats appeared to...