News

La Première, the leading TV channel of Côte d’Ivoire’s state-owned broadcaster Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI), has since December 24 not been available in France or in neighbouring African countries, where it is normally carried by the Canal + Horizon satellite service, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). It would seem this is because its signal has...

A judge in the southern Honduran town of Amapala has decided to try community radio reporters Elia Xiomara Hernández and Elba Yolibeth Rubio on charges of disobeying the authorities and “taking part in demonstrations that obstruct public services.” The trial is to take place on January 11, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Hernández and Rubio, who work...

The Axel Springer Academy, established by Germany's eponymous publishing group, said Wednesday it would create a magazine designed to be viewed exclusively on the Apple iPad, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Kraftwerk D" is to cost 2.39 euros (3.20 dollars), would be assembled by 18 students and would mark "a world premiere for a school of journalism," a statement said. The first issue...

Math-loving traders are using powerful computers to speed-read news reports, editorials, company Web sites, blog posts and even Twitter messages — and then letting the machines decide what it all means for the markets. The development goes far beyond standard digital fare like most-read and e-mailed lists, says a New York Times report. In some cases, the computers are actually parsing writers’...

Robert Shemahamba, director of Radio-Télévision Communautaire Mitumba (RTCM) and correspondent for the Syfia Grands Lacs news agency, has been arbitrarily detained since Dececmber 17 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). The journalist is being held in a cell at the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) in Uvira, Sud...

Two Uzbekistan journalists working for public television Yoshlar, Saodat Omonova and Malohat Eshankulova, were dismissed on December 9, three days after they demonstrated against censorship and corruption at the TV station, in a square in central Tashkent, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). It expressed concern over their safety, since following their...

Iranian journalist Abdolreza Tajik, winner of the RSF 2010 press freedom award, has been freed after his family put up bail for a third time in the sum of 500,000,000 tomans (about 370,000 euros), Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF said it was delighted at the release on Wednesday of the emblematic figure in the struggle for freedom and journalism in...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a US government agency with independent status, voted to adopt an ineffective set of Net Neutrality rules last week after more than a year of negotiations with the various parties concerned, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The five-member commission’s two Democrats voted with its chairman, Julius Genachowski...

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace Mugabe, has brought about a libel suite against independent weekly The Standard for quoting a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks accusing her of involvement in diamond trafficking. She is demanding $15 million in damages, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). “The First Lady’s libel suit aims to undermine...

WikiLeaks has surpassed Spiegel as the most quoted source in opinion-leading German media in the first two weeks of December, according to Zurich-based Media Tenor International. According to Media Tenor’s ongoing continuous analysis of quotations in the 40 most important German media for more than a decade, Spiegel has held the pole position from the beginning. “With Spiegel being one of the...