News

Luke Harding, correspondent of the British daily The Guardian who was deported from Russia on February 5, returned to his job in Moscow on February 12 after being issued a new visa by the government. But the paper said Monday its expiry date was not indicated and that he could be forced to leave the country again on May 31, the date his old visa expires, according to Paris-based press freedom...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has published the full report of journalists and media staff killed during 2010, saying that 94 media fatalities last year demonstrate the increasing risks facing journalists around the globe. The report also includes three cases of journalists who lost their lives in accidents. "It is a poignant roll call of tragedy and loss recording the deaths...

Andrzej Poczobut, a Grodno correspondent for the largest Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, has been sentenced to prison. According to reports in the local press, the Oktyabrsky District Court in Minsk sentenced Poczobut to 15 days in jail on charges of "participation in the unsanctioned protest rally" that followed the December 19 presidential elections. Poczobut covered the protests for Gazeta...

A former Israeli soldier who leaked secret military documents to a journalist suggesting that the army had ignored a court ruling in carrying out targeted assassinations of West Bank militants faces years in prison. Anat Kamm, who was held under secret house arrest for four months before her case was made public, pleaded guilty yesterday to the possession and distribution of classified documents...

The Voice of America (VOA) has launched a new “blog network”. All of VOA’s English language blogs are now conveniently listed on one webpage, including Digital Frontiers, a dynamic online discussion of privacy, identity and freedom in the digital age. In addition to a single page that brings together links to all of VOA’s blog sites, visitors can see what others are saying about key issues, and...

Yahoo on Thursday announced the debut of Livestand, a publishing platform that aims to deliver personalised content to mobile devices. The New York Times reported on Sunday, the platform, a digital newsstand, will offer a continuous stream of programming based on users’ interests. Yahoo plans to push the platform across multiple formats, including tablets, smartphones, and Web browsers, according...

Gunmen staged separate attacks on a TV station and a radio station in Torreón, in the northern state of Coahuila on February 9, killing a young engineer, Rodolfo Ochoa, in the attack on Canal 9 (Milenio TV), which is owned by the Multimedios Laguna group. Equipment was destroyed in the attack on the radio station, Radiorama, which has been off the air ever since, according to Paris-based press...

Scarcely veiled death threats have been made against independent journalist Serhiy Lechenko that were expressed by Vyacheslav Pikhovshek, a PR consultant who supports President Viktor Yanukovych, in an opinion piece published in the pro-government newspaper Izvestiya v Ukrayine, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Lechenko is an influential journalist who...

The protests throughout the Middle East, and most notably Egypt, have registered as the No. 1 news story over the past two weeks, according to the Project for Journalism's News Coverage Index. They accounted for 20 per cent of the newshole from January 24-30 and then a whopping 56 per cent from January 31-February 6, making it the biggest international story in a single week since PEJ began...

Taghi Rahmani, a veteran independent journalist and staunch free speech activist, was picked up at his Tehran home on Wednesday by men in plain-clothes and was taken to an unknown location, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. At the same time, several journalists and bloggers have been summoned for questioning by the Revolutionary Guards and the...