News

The commander of the Sri Lankan army, Major-General Sarath Fonseka has labelled some journalists and sections of the media as “traitors”. In an interview published in the state-controlled Sinhala daily Dinamina on January 2, Foneska said the “treachery” of the media was the only obstacle hampering the military’s fight to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). “The biggest obstacle is...

The Iraqi Government has promised to shortly issue a full report on targeting and killings of journalists since the invasion of the country five years ago. More than 250 journalists and media staff have died since 2003 says the IFJ-affiliated Iraqi Union of Journalists. With a media killing every five days over the past two years casualties in Iraq have pushed the global death toll of journalists...

The words leap from the page in a familiar bold white-on-black font, every word heavily underlined: "Bullying can hurt so much that kids at the receiving end can be driven to kill. At a Gurgaon school, two 14-year-olds did just that and shot their classmate." It's a classic Daily Mail story given a classic Daily Mail treatment. But this is Delhi, and Mail Today a joint venture between the India...

Kasturi & Sons has launched Ergo, a free daily, in Chennai, says a Mint report. Some backgrounders: Ergo, a 16-page, all-colour tabloid, is India’s first free daily from a large media house. Free newspapers try to recover all their costs—of publishing and distribution—from advertising. Globally, such free newspapers are now published in at least 52 countries. While Ergo is the newest offering, the...

A few hours after the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) disclosed as an "unlimited tragedy" the cases of journalists and media workers recorded in 2007, on the first day of 2008, Latin America mourned its first casualty. José Fernando González, 35, Director of the radio station Radio FM Mega 92.7, was murdered in the city of Santa Bárbara, Trinidad, 150 km northeast of Tegucigalpa...

A journalist and a former journalist were killed in separate incidents on Mindanao island in December 2007, according to delayed reports received by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). On December 24, Fernando Lintuan, a radio broadcaster for dxGO radio in Davao, was killed by gunmen while in his car after leaving work. About 10am, two men on a motorcycle opened fire on Lintuan at a...

Ten journalists in Sindh province who were reporting on events related to Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s death on December 27 have been arrested under anti-terrorism and riot laws, according to the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). PFUJ reported that 34 cases were registered against journalists in the province’s interior since December 27. Of these, 19 journalists work for...

Television channels may come under the government scanner. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has openly criticised the television rating point system of viewership assessment and news content, says a Business Standard report. Some details: Speaking in Kolkata at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Das Munsi said, "The TRP mechanism in India is...

Atex, the world’s leading provider of content management software and services to the global media industry, has become the latest Strategic Business Partner of the World Association of Newspapers in the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, it was announced Thursday. Atex will make a significant investment in the SFN project, which identifies, analyses and publicises all important...

Press freedom organisations have called for the prompt dismissal of Sri Lanka’s Labour Minister, Mervyn Silva, following his physical and verbal abuse of officials of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). According to news reports, Dr Silva assaulted SLRC’s news director, TMG Chandrasekara, at the premises of Sri Lanka’s main public television broadcaster on December 27, 2007. The assault...