News

Leading forecasters of advertising spending have turned cautious in their predictions for most media, except - not surprisingly - the Internet. In a series of presentations yesterday, at the opening sessions of the 33rd annual UBS Global Media Conference in Midtown Manhattan, several analysts trimmed or stood pat on their growth estimates for this year and next. Even some forecasters who were not...

The Press Council of India wants "more teeth in press laws" to control and curb unethical journalism. The PCI chairman GN Ray said in Kolkata on Monday that there was a trend towards the "trivialisation, marginalisation and extreme commercialisation" of news and the PCI should have additional powers to achieve the desired control. Speaking on the occasion of the launch of a magazine, Krishi Udyog...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The group that oversees Internet domain sites has again postponed a decision on a controversial ".xxx" domain for sex sites, the head of the organization said on Monday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, had been expected at its quarterly meeting in Vancouver to approve or kill the domain, which would give pornographic Web sites their own...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has accused the United States of "operating a cynical campaign of double standards" in Iraq after newspaper reports that a sophisticated propaganda offensive is being waged whereby the US army is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish articles written by American troops posing as journalists. According to the Los Angeles Times, articles...

When magazine readers sit at home, do they look at the pages any differently than when they're at a doctor's office or a hair salon? Do they flip through advertising one way if they paid for the magazine and another way if they did not? Those are the questions ad agencies that buy ads in consumer magazines might be asking themselves now that the Audit Bureau of Circulations has created a new...

Governments in the European Union must step up their work to protect human rights defenders, groups representing journalists and others working in the field who are increasingly at risk, have said. In an appeal to the British government, currently holding the presidency of the European Union, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the National Union of Journalists in Britain and...

Many Korean scientists appeared relieved yesterday as the dispute between Hwang Woo-suk's stem cell research team and MBC-TV was showing signs of subsiding after the TV station made an official apology on Sunday. They were critical of the TV station as its staff attempted to verify the authenticity of the world-renowned cloning expert's scientific achievements. They were united in the belief that...

China and Belarus signed an agreement on journalism and publication cooperation in Beijing on Monday. Cai Wu, head of China's State Council Information Office (SCIO), and Vladimir Rusakevich, information minister of Belarus, signed the agreement. According to the agreement, the two departments will exchange news on the two countries' politics, economy and culture through news agencies...

As Chinese Prime Minister Wen continued a four-day visit to France that began yesterday, press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said it has confirmed that journalist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year-prison sentence, is having to do forced labour and he is suffering from respiratory problems and a skin inflammation. Shi, who was convicted of "illegally divulging state secrets abroad"...

Now more than ever -- when outmoded notions of "he said/she said" fairness, avaricious owners and new media all threaten newspapers' primacy -- narrative journalism has the chance and the vital mission of bringing context and emotion to reporting. Amid tips on leads, endings and everything between, that message highlighted the annual Nieman Narrative Journalism conference in Boston. More than 950...