News

A CNN reporter who left Myanmar Friday was chased by authorities as he reported on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis but escaped primarily because of the incompetence of the people after him, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Dan Rivers hid under a blanket at one police checkpoint and casually covered up his name on a passport to avoid detection another time. He may ultimately have gotten out...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced a series of threats and attacks carried out Friday by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies against pro-government news outlets in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. In separate incidents on Friday, Hezbollah gunmen and allied opposition groups attacked and threatened offices belonging to the Future media group owned by Saad Hariri...

Gunmen loyal to Hezbollah forced the pro-government Future News television off the air on Friday. Future News is owned by Saad al-Hariri, leader of Lebanon's US-backed ruling coalition. "An army officer accompanied by members of Hezbollah walked into the station and told us to switch off transmission. We are off the air," an official told Reuters anonymously. The offices of Hariri's al-Mustaqbal...

A Reuters photographer covering the aftermath of Zimbabwe's elections has been detained for three days for allegedly using a satellite phone to transmit pictures, the global news and information company said on Thursday. Reuters called for the immediate release of Howard Burditt, a Zimbabwean national, who has been held by police in Harare since Monday. He has not been charged. "As part of its pan...

A young Cuban dissident has been given a prestigious Spanish journalism award for using a blog to overcome the limits to free expression in her country, says a BBC News report. Yoani Sanchez has received the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for her blog, called Generation Y. Cuban authorities did not approve Yoani Sanchez's request to travel to Madrid for the award ceremony. Cuban...

(AFP) — Mushtaq Yusufzai has been wounded by the Taliban, arrested by Pakistani forces and his mother has begged him to quit -- but still he keeps reporting from the frontline of the "war on terror". The 32-year-old specialist on Pakistan's wild tribal belt is the winner of the Kate Webb award, set up by Agence France-Presse (AFP) to honour the life and career of the legendary foreign...

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted Thursday on a White Paper that recognises the importance of sports journalism in Europe. Several MEPs had proposed amendments to the Mavrommatis report on sport, which would have severely limited the freedom of news media to report freely on sports events, for the enjoyment of their readers across Europe. Following a call by media and journalists'...

The New York Times confirmed Wednesday that it had made a limited but unspecified number of involuntary cuts to its newsroom staff in order to meet its goal of reducing head count there by 100, says an Associated Press (AP) report. Executive Editor Bill Keller said in a memo to staff that while the "overwhelming majority" of cuts came from volunteers accepting buyout offers, the paper had to make...

Sri Lanka's military barred foreign journalists Thursday from covering weekend elections in the east that are seen as a test of confidence in the government, which seized the region from Tamil Tiger rebels last year, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. Maj Gen. Palitha Fernando said any foreigner not registered as an election observer cannot be in Eastern province during the polls. An...

With 93 journalists killed, 2007 was another deadly year. Iraq proved again to be the most hazardous place on earth from which to report, with the conflict accounting for almost half of all journalists killed during the year. In Somalia, another conflict zone, eight journalists were killed. This tally is according to the IPI World Press Freedom Review 2007, which is the Vienna-based International...