News

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Government’s top watchdog agencies, say that they should get immunity under the 2005 Right to Information Act. In other words, citizens shouldn’t be given the right to ask for information regarding the nature of their functioning–or the cases they handle. The heads of both the departments have told The Sunday...

Press freedom in the United States was dealt a blow last week with the Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal by two journalists who face jail for refusing to reveal their confidential sources and ignoring subpoenas to testify before a grand jury. The decision has several IFEX members concerned that the decision gives authoritarian regimes further ammunition to justify crackdowns on the press....

Eminent journalist and editorial advisor of the New Indian Express T J S George has been selected for this year's C H Mohammad Koya Journalism Award for his outstanding contribution to the field. The announcement was made by CH Journalism Trust member and Kerala Public Works Ministe M K Muneer at a press conference here today. George been chosen from among a panel of 25 distinguished persons from...

Media types desperate for a sliver of encouraging news about public support can grasp it in the latest State of the First Amendment survey's findings about unnamed sources. The 2005 edition of the poll, commissioned by the First Amendment Center in collaboration with AJR, found that 69 percent of Americans agree with the statement: "Journalists should be allowed to keep a news source confidential...

Judith Miller is an American hero. Forget Ahmed Chalabi and all of those off-target stories about Saddam's WMD. When crunch time came, Miller hung tough. Not for her the cave-in of Time Inc. honcho Norm Pearlstine, who gave up Time reporter Matt Cooper's notes. Not for her the last-minute "waiver" route that Cooper took in deciding to testify before the grand jury investigating who leaked the...

The National Foundation for India has announced seven fellowships of Rs 1 lakh each under its National Media Fellowship Programme. The National Media Fellowship Programme is open for young mid-career journalists, who are interested to take time off from their routine beats to research and publish articles on a wide range of issues that have to do with ordinary Indians striving for a better life...

WASHINGTON -- Attention, fellow journalists: Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has blown our cover. In his argument for why New York Times reporter Judith Miller should be jailed until she tells a grand jury who revealed the name of a CIA operative to her, Fitzgerald stated that "journalists are not entitled to promise complete confidentiality. No one in America is." He's right. But what's...

Facing reduced circulation, The Times is apparently trying to create buzz by making its editorial pages more interactive and surprising. Unfortunately, editors are abandoning standards and traditions that make readers want to read its editorial pages. The paper is concocting a Frankenstein's monster of new and old media – call it blogotorial. Personality-driven writing is the province of the...

In South Korea, print newspapers used to be the "media king" that once held society together, but the rise of the Internet has undermined the role of the dailies as the major opinion leaders and is cutting into their ad revenue, industry sources say. Up until 2000, almost six in every 10 adults started the day with reading a newspaper. Politically, the major papers had earned their stars as...

Media buying houses across the country are rubbing their hands in glee. The reason: They expect ad space rate in print media to come down in the future. They will now be able to offer their clients, the advertisers, lower rates for reaching out to a larger number of people across several print media options. The new print players have already begun negotiating on reduced ad rates. Nirvik Singh...