News

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been shot dead, according to Wikipedia, the online, up-to-the-minute encyclopedia. Apparently, the assassin was a "friend" of the victim of a recent controversy which ironically, smeared former Robert F Kennedy aid John Seigenthaler as a suspect in the assassination of both Kennedy brothers. That claim, which the site carried for several months, along with the...

In a bid to curtail vandalism and malicious entries in the free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, the publication’s editors have today officially implemented a semi-protection policy for certain articles. Essentially, the measure prevents newly registered users and all unregistered users from editing pages. However, the Wikipedia editors said that semi-protection is only to be applied if a page is...

While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left. These are just...

Djibouti (HAN) December 17, 2005 - A few glimmers of hope that Somalia may one day be re-invented. To Move cash the few score miles between Mogadishu, Somalia's lawless official capital, and Jowhar, the seat of its transitional government, a local money-vendor has to pay $6,000. For that he gets an armoured lorry, 30 gunmen and three "technicals"–jeeps with heavy machineguns. What he doesn't get...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced an influenza pandemic handbook for journalists to help demystify the science behind avian and pandemic influenza. It is an introduction to everything one needs to know about influenza, including about avian influenza and the potential for a pandemic. The contents include: The influenza basics Avian influenza and pandemic influenza - what's the...

The Times and its journalists won three major prizes at the What The Papers Say awards today, where it was named newspaper of the year. Individual honours went to Richard Lloyd-Parry, Asia Editor, who was named foreign correspondent of the year, and Peter Brookes, who was named cartoonist of the year. Martin Samuel, a Times columnist, was named sports writer of the year for his articles in the...

Coverage of Wikipedia in the popular press veers between two extremes. It's either the admirable heroics of plucky amateurs - it's Neasden FC winning the FA Cup - or it's the latest net threat to civilization. This week a survey by Nature gave sympathetic news editors the chance to revisit the first view. Accuracy of Wikipedia matches Britannica, review shows, boasts CBC. Wikipedia as accurate as...

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A former London-based correspondent for Walt Disney Co.'s ABC News won a legal claim that he was fired for refusing to cover war zones, one of the first rulings in Britain arising from workplace-safety regulations. Richard Gizbert, 47, sued ABC for unfair dismissal for firing him in 2004 after he rejected assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan, contrary to a policy that all war...

Moscow’s Military District Court has ruled the criminal actions against Colonel Pavel Popovskikh, an acquitted defendant in the case of a murdered journalist, were unjustified. Popovskikh is now to receive 2,135,000 rubles (about $75,000) in moral and material damages, Itar Tass reported Thursday. Popovskikh was among six suspects charged with the murder of Moscow journalist Dmitry Kholodov...

The United States, in an attempt to salvage its image abroad especially among journalists in Islamic countries, has announced a programme that will bring up to 100 foreign journalists to the US to "foster more understanding about the American press and its function in a democracy." The US state department Tuesday announced the launch of a new international journalism programme, in partnership with...