News

Editors' Note: This is an expanded version of a piece that appeared in the September/October 2003 issue of CJR. Several years ago, when the Internet was young, I saw a notice in The New York Times that the reporter Matthew L. Wald would be online that day, answering questions from the public. The Times said you could e-mail him in advance and it gave his address, a novelty then. So I bit. I asked...

Britain's "Kelly Affair" – a top weapons expert hounded into suicide, a once-popular national leader plunging in the polls, accused of fomenting an unnecessary war – is a high-stakes drama, one that features a bitter institutional conflict that could destroy the long-established balance of power between the government and the UK 's most respected news organization, the publicly funded BBC. Just...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent attack on the offices of Doordarshan Television and Radio Kashmir in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. Five people were killed. At about 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 26, assailants detonated a car laden with explosives near the main gate of an office complex housing the media outlets, both of which are owned by...

For the first time in 44 years (that is, since the time of inception), Doordarshan (DD) has hired the services of an advertising agency. In an even more decisive stance, the national broadcaster is working overtime to give final shape to an aggressive research and marketing plan. "Despite our reach and pre-eminent position in several areas, we are faced with an image problem. We are keen to...

R.R. Gopal, editor of the Tamil-language magazine "Nakkheeran", has been sent to prison in Poonnamalle, near Chennai. Judge L.Rajendran formally charged him with "conspiring to promote the secession of Tamil Nadu state" and "possession of a firearm" under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). It is the first time a journalist had been charged in India under the controversial law. Police said...

On 14 April 2003, RSF denounced the arrest of R. R. Gopal, editor of the bi-weekly Tamil-language magazine "Nakkheeran", for "illegal possession of firearms" and "sedition". The organisation said the editor's arrest is an attempt by police to cover up their inability to find Veerappan, one of India's most notorious bandits. RSF said Gopal and other journalists in the southeastern state of Tamil...

Don’t believe a word when the Spanish government says that our brother died in a "regrettable accident", or that there were snipers or that he knew the risks. Don’t believe a word when the Spanish government says that his death will be used by the Iraqi regime, or that his death could inflame public opinion and that it’s better to put it behind us, or that it’s all a "surprise." They MURDERED our...

Jayson Blair may have used his color as a shield against the radar at The New York Times. But blaming diversity when personnel problems go terribly awry, as they did in this instance, is like blaming expensive and delicate machinery for malfunctioning when the workers don't have operating manuals. The drive for diversity is a business imperative. According to the U.S. government's Minority...

The fall of Howell Raines was riveting to cover but hard to watch. And with a little distance, some aspects of the story become clearer. Among them is the realization that Jayson Blair was just a supporting player. Exactly five weeks passed between the resignations of Blair and Raines, but the discovery of the reporter's deceptions wasn't the first act in the drama. In retrospect, it was the...

Linda Greenhouse got it right, I thought. In an interview in May about the Jayson Blair disaster that was quoted in The Wall Street Journal on June 6, the day after Howell Raines resigned as executive editor of The New York Times, she observed: "There is an endemic cultural issue at the Times that is not a Howell creation, although it plays into his vulnerabilities as a manager, which is a top...