News

NAIROBI, 9 December (IRIN) - The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has won a prestigious international award in recognition of its "tenacious fight to defend the international principle of press freedom" in the Horn of Africa nation. The international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWB) awarded NUSOJ the Fondation de France International Press Freedom Defender prize at a...

MOSCOW, December 9 (RIA Novosti) - The lower house of the Russian parliament adopted a law in its third reading Friday that gives the Public Chamber the right to control the observance of freedom of speech in the mass media. The bill was backed by 347 State Duma deputies, out of the 226 votes necessary. Six rejected it and one person abstained. The amendments to the law on the Public Chamber...

In the next day or two, the world will get a glimpse of how desirable, or not, newspapers are, when preliminary bidding begins for Knight Ridder. The fate of the company, the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States in terms of circulation, behind Gannett, is being closely watched as a signpost for the future of other newspapers at a time of great transformation, anxiety and...

CAIRO, 9 December (IRIN) - The arrest of the editor of a local news website this week has raised fresh concerns among defenders of freedom of expression. "Such practices reflect the government's lack of tolerance for freedom of expression and opinion," said Mahmoud Aly of the Egyptian Association for the Support of Democracy. Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud, the editor of Balady.net, a website devoted to...

On a U.S. tour, award-winning journalist Robert Fisk spoke about his life work as a veteran journalist reporting about the Middle East. Fisk is the Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper, The Independent. For almost 30 years he has been a journalist and with over 28 foreign press awards he is one of the most decorated journalists in the world. With a sunburned face Fisk has lived in...

TREVOR Ncube, the owner and publisher of the Mail & Guardian and Zimbabwe's Standard and Independent newspapers had his passport impounded as he landed in Bulawayo on Wednesday. Ncube, who commutes between South Africa and Zimbabwe, is in Bulawayo on a business and family trip, the Mail & Guradian reported. The impounding of Ncube's passport came as Australia promised to urgently review a list of...

Two former Daily Mirror journalists were warned yesterday that they face imprisonment over their attempts to manipulate the stock market through their City Slicker newspaper column. Southwark Crown Court heard how James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul conspired with a third man, private investor Terry Shepherd, to make thousands of pounds by ramping up the price of shares. Bhoyrul, 38, had pleaded guilty...

Srinagar : Shops and establishments in most parts of Kashmir Valley were closed Thursday to protest a Danish newspaper publishing a caricature of the Prophet and the alleged desecration of the Quran in Sopore town. The strike call was given by the separatist Hurriyat Conference group led by Syed Ali Geelani. The Kashmir bar association and other groups supported the shutdown. Authorities have made...

(December 08, 2005) -- Before the Tribune Co. discharges any more journalists, and before Wall Street kills any papers, let's look at the economics of newspapers. Must they be at the mercy of executives seeking bonuses and stock appreciation rather than nourishing a force for civic good? Although the obit-writers are greatly exaggerating the death of American newspapers, we've seen enough...

The Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the government Wednesday to allow a private radio station to relay BBC programmes, the station's chief said. "We will resume the broadcast of the BBC Nepali Service from Wednesday," Radio Sagarmatha chief Lakshman Upreti said. RED RIDING HOODS: Nepalese activists shout anti-monarch slogans during a rally at Naya Baneswar in the capital Kathamandu December 2,2005...