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WASHINGTON - Military officials for the first time yesterday detailed and broadly defended a Pentagon program that pays to plant stories in the Iraqi media, an effort the top U.S. military commander said was part of an effort to "get the truth out" there. But facing critics in the United States - including lawmakers from both parties - the military raised the possibility for the first time of...

It is a dark and humid night as a Tomahawk cruise missile fired from a ship sailing west of the Strait of Hormuz whizzes its way over the Qatari Peninsula and into a compound of small buildings that are turned into rubble on impact. The missile has been fired by the United States Navy and its target is the headquarters of the Al-Jazeera satellite television network located in Qatar just four miles...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - The military acknowledged Friday in a briefing for a ranking Senate Republican that news articles written by American troops had been placed as paid advertisements in the Iraqi news media and not always properly identified. Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters after receiving a 25-minute briefing from officials at...

NIAMEY (Reuters) - A court in Niger has jailed a local journalist for two months for publishing a report which suggested the country's state treasurer could face charges of embezzlement. Siddo Elhadj, who as state treasurer is a public servant in charge of the treasury, filed a complaint after the privately owned "Le Visionnaire" reported he might stand trial for embezzling almost 17 billion (17.3...

The authorities and the official media appear to be trying to sabotage the campaigns of opposition candidates contesting December 4 presidential elections. Several opposition candidates have claimed that state media are effectively boycotting them, and there have been reports of the authorities harassing independent and oppositional newspapers. Observers say this flies in the face of assurances...

Nothing puts the lie to the Bush Administration's absurd claim that it invaded Iraq to spread democracy throughout the Middle East more decisively than its ceaseless attacks on Al Jazeera, the institution that has done more than any other to break the stranglehold over information previously held by authoritarian forces, whether monarchs, military strongmen, occupiers or ayatollahs. The United...

Use of the Internet as a resource and a forum strongly influences participation in civic affairs, often more than traditional media and even face-to-face communication, according to a study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism professor. The study by Dhavan Shah, published in the October edition of the journal Communication Research, analysed data from surveys conducted during and after...

IN HINDSIGHT, maybe it shouldn't be surprising that the Pentagon has been secretly paying Iraqi journalists and news organizations to write and run positive stories about the war. After all, this is an administration that paid a U.S. columnist and peddled phony video news releases at home, too. But saying it was predictable makes it no less loathsome and damaging to find that the Bush...

Just what sort of democratic principles are we exporting to Iraq? The Los Angeles Times reported this week that U.S. military officials are paying Iraqi newspapers to run canned, favorable "stories" that praise the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, laud the rebuilding efforts and denounce the insurgents. While the White House was busy distancing itself from the controversy -- "We are seeking more...

The White House demanded Thursday that the Pentagon hand over information about a secret U.S. military operation to plant news stories in the Iraqi news media, and senators plan to meet behind closed doors with military commanders to learn about the information offensive underway in Iraq. Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the White House was "very concerned" about reports that a defense...