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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) the global organisation of journalists, representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide is concerned over the recent violence directed towards journalists and media workers in Kerala, India. "It is unacceptable for journalists to be attacked in attempts to intimidate or censor reports," said IFJ President Christopher Warren today. "Journalists must...

On 20 December 2003, R.R. Gopal, editor of the Tamil-language magazine "Nakkheeran", was released on bail following a Tamil Nadu High Court order. Gopal was detained in Chennai Central prison for more than eight months. He still faces charges for "conspiring to promote the secession of Tamil Nadu state" and "possession of a firearm". He was charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) on...

It is an issue that has stirred deep emotions, fanned desperate conflicts, and upset the applecart of 'development'. It is also an issue that has largely gone under-reported or glossed over by the media. The mining sector in India is growing 6 per cent - 7 per cent every year. After mining was deregulated in 1993, there has been a deluge of foreign investment. In 2003-2004, the country mined ores...

CBS News has announced plans to relaunch its website as a 24-hour, on-demand broadband video news channel. The new CBSNews.com, to debut later this summer, will include The EyeBox, an on-demand video player pulling from more than 25,000 free video clips, including some yet to be shown on the broadcast network. The Public Eye, a weblog edited by Vaughn Ververs, that will take readers "inside the...

July 7, 2005, was one of the darkest days for London, as terrorists blew up three underground trains and a double-decker bus, killing scores and injuring hundreds. But out of that darkness came an unusual light, the flickering light from survivors such as Adam Stacey and Ellis Leeper as they shot the scene underground using cameraphones and videophones. Like the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia...

AS part of efforts to create a massive network of information kiosks in 6 lakh villages in India by August 2007, the National Alliance on Mission 2007, aimed at ushering in ICT-led development in rural India, has outlined its plans to connect 2.4 lakh panchayats in the first phase. "Village Knowledge Centre (VKCs) is one of the essential components for realising our goal of graduating into a...

The BBC has introduced a section on its website for a variety of open source software projects. The projects include Media Lounge, a C++ application which "displays an interactive, shared virtual world, in which the content author can embed audio and video sequences," a video codec and modules for Apache and Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. Together, the projects, for which source code is...

Something doesn't add up about why Judith Miller went to jail. The New York Times reporter didn't write a story about the Valerie Plame case and had a waiver from her source in order to talk about it to the grand jury. But she insisted on going to jail anyway. Speculation is mounting that Miller is protecting herself─that Miller was herself a source of information about Plame that made it to...

The Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships (AFPF) is an American non-profit, non-governmental organization that gives developing-world journalists the opportunity to work as reporters in American newsrooms. The program, which runs from March to September, is offered annually to approximately ten professional print journalists between the ages of 25 and 35. Sharing the goals of AFPF, the Daniel Pearl...

Blogs were the "ideal news resource" after the recent bomb attacks in London, wrote the BBC: "Every feature of blogging found a new use. Comments sections became "Are You Alive?" sections. PayPal accounts became donations to buy beer for the emergency services. And long before politicians had a chance to make a statement, Londoners' own reactions were being quoted as the voice of Britain around...