News

Fox News viewers are much more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. A recent study also shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation. The findings are from a survey by World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. The poll found that nine in ten voters said that in the 2010 election they...

Press freedom groups have condemned the government’s closure of the Kuwait City bureau of the Doha-based satellite TV station Al-Jazeera for covering police use of force to disperse an unauthorised demonstration at Soulaibikhat, 10 km from the city centre, on December 8. “This closure violates the legal procedures and regulations in force in Kuwait,” Paris-based press Reporters sans Frontières...

Journalist and presenter on the satellite TV channel al-Anbar Omar Rassim al-Qayssi died on Sunday of injuries he suffered in a booby-trap car bomb in al-Anbar city centre, Ramadi, 167 km east of Baghdad). Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) hopes that an investigation will be opened and those responsible will be brought to trial. The press freedom organisation said it...

Thomson Reuters Corp has launched a news service for US publishers and broadcasters in a bid to win business from the Associated Press and CNN, the news agency has announced. The new service, Reuters America, provides text stories, photos and video by Reuters journalists for newspapers, television stations and online publishers. Newspaper publisher and broadcaster Tribune Co is its first customer...

The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), have expressed concern at a draft law in Hungary that would impose extensive fines against journalists and publishers if they refuse to disclose their sources or publish information deemed inappropriate by the government. The proposed law, if passed, would seriously...

Aboubakr Jamaï, the co-founder and former managing director of the weekly newspaper Le Journal Hebdomadaire and a pioneer of the independent press in Morocco, has been awarded the 2010 Gebran Tueni Award, the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) that honours an editor or publisher from the Arab region. The award honours the editor or publisher who...

UNESCO and Al-Jazeera Satellite Network have signed an agreement to promote freedom of expression and access to information in the Arab world. UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova and Al-Jazeera’s Director-General, Wadah Khanfar, signed the Memorandum of Understanding in Doha (Qatar) during Bokova’s official visit to the country. “This agreement advances a new kind of partnership UNESCO is...

An International Symposium on Freedom of Expression, sponsored by the Swedish National Commission, will be organised by UNESCO at its Headquarters on January 26, 2011. Based on the premises that freedom of expression is a cornerstone of the human rights edifice, and that open and participatory communication is vital for successful development, the debates will focus on the status of press freedom...

Kuwaiti authorities shut down the local offices of the Al-Jazeera TV network and withdrew its accreditation Monday after it covered a violent police crackdown on a meeting of Opposition lawmakers in the oil-rich Gulf country, the Associated Press has reported. Al-Jazeera denied the charge of meddling in Kuwaiti affairs, saying it was just doing its job. "Al-Jazeera, which has adhered in its...

Apple's iPad is killing print newspaper subscriptions, according to a new survey by the Donald W Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. However, its data also suggests the iPad is becoming a new channel for people's daily news, offering hope that at least some of the iPad-exclusive publications in the pipeline can succeed. Users are predominantly well-educated, affluent men...