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Leading Ethiopian journalist Amare Aregawi was assaulted brutally Friday last in capital Addis Ababa, an attack in which he suffered serious head injuries, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Aregawi edits the Reporter, a big-circulation newspaper published in Amharic and English-language versions. “The Ethiopian police must investigate this attack thoroughly in order to identify both...

The Seattle Times on Monday announced plans to cut its staff by 10 per cent through a combination of layoffs and buyouts, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The cuts of 130 to 150 jobs are the third staff reduction announced by the 112-year-old, family owned newspaper this year. The company hinted in an email to staff Monday morning that there could be further cuts as the 2009 budgeting...

Bhutan has just got its first English daily newspaper, which promises to provide a new perspective to news and events for the citizens in the landlocked Himalayan country, says a Press Trust of India report [ Link]. Bhutan Today, the first English daily launched in the country, is the third private newspaper after Bhutan Times and Bhutan Observer, which are weekly and bi-weekly respectively. The...

Morocco has banned an issue of French magazine L'Express International, claiming it insults Islam in articles exploring the relationship between that religion and Christianity. Algerian and Tunisian authorities followed suit three days after the October 31 Moroccan decision. Moroccan Information Minister Khalid Naciri said Sunday that he had no choice but to ban the current issue because of the...

Authorities in Azerbaijan have decided to halt local broadcasts by foreign stations by the end of the year. The chairman of Azerbaijan's National Television and Radio Council, Nushiravan Meherremli, told independent news agency Turan that his country is not interested in granting local frequencies to foreign broadcasters. The policy change will affect the the British Broadcasting Corporation, and...

An Ethiopian Federal High Court judge has convicted an editor on criminal charges of "inciting the public through false rumors" over a reporting mistake, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girima of the private weekly Enbilta is being held in Kality prison, outside the capital, Addis Ababa, pending sentencing on Tuesday. Charged under article 486 of the...

The police on Friday arrested Vanita Ghag, a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) corporator from the Malad are, and six other party workers for assaulting a journalist in the presence of the police in Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Times of India has reported. A mob of around 100 MNS supporters, who were shouting slogans in favour of party chief Raj Thackeray at the premises of...

A senior journalist from Uttar Pradesh was on Thursday brutally beaten by supporters of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in Mumbai, a day after a young man from the state died after being thrashed in a suburban train, Indo-Asian News Service has reported. Some details from the IANS report: [ Link] Dinanath Tiwari, 45, who works for the Nirbhay Pathik tabloid, had gone to Kurar village in the...

Gannett Company, the largest newspaper chain in the US, is slashing about 3,000 jobs and the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor is ending its print edition, the latest cost-cutting moves in a beleaguered US newspaper industry. Last week, the Los Angeles Times announced its decision to lay off 10 per cent of its news staff, while the Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey said about 40 per cent of...

It was the the fear of newspapers' backlash that forced the Associated Press (AP) last week to retract its plans of new fees. News agency AP, which is owned by its US member newspapers, has said its board of directors has asked the management to complete a sweeping review of the news cooperative's membership policies by next April. A note to staff said some job cuts are likely. [ Link] "It is time...