News

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 27 November 2007, supporters of a regional prefect who oppose the national government threatened journalists of the radio stations Digital and Pando for reporting negatively about the regional strike they organized, which began that day in the town of Cobija, northern Bolivia, according to information provided by the Governmental News Agency (Agencia Gubernamental de Noticia, ABI)...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has condemned a 29 November 2007 search at the home of journalist and blogger Zhai Minglei, who was due the following day to answer an official summons linked to an investigation into the "illegal publication" of the magazine "Minjian" (Civil Society). Zhai posted on his blog, Yaobao, nominated for the international Best of the Blogs (BoB) awards, an account...

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi journalist Wednesday challenged government denials that 11 of his relatives were slaughtered in their Baghdad home, urging authorities to show that his claim was false by letting "all my family appear on television." Dhia al-Kawaz, editor of the Jordan-based Aswat al-Iraq news agency, had said masked gunmen stormed the family home and killed two of his sisters, their...

Guardian journalists today voted in favour of an "enabling deal" that offered backing for the company's 24/7 integration plans. The National Union of Journalists' Guardian chapel endorsed the deal by 211 votes to 27, with two abstentions. Today's agreement gives staff a two-year, 4.8% pay rise effective from the current financial year, with an additional inflation-linked boost from April 2008...

Reporters Without Borders today strongly condemned a murder attempt against Danilo Bautista Hernández, presenter of a news programme on Radio California in Nueva Cajamarca, San Martín, north-eastern Peru by two men who aimed a gun at him before fleeing when they were disturbed. The incident may be linked to the journalist’s repeated criticism on his programme, El Informativo de Mediodía, of the...

GENEVA: The United States, Britain and France publicly pledged Thursday to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of journalists in war zones. The three countries became the first signatories of the Geneva Conventions to accept a new nonbinding accord on protecting correspondents in conflict, said the International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversees compliance with the 1949 treaty...

New York, November 29, 2007 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is angered by the detention of about 17 journalists by Philippine police after a seven-hour standoff between a dissident group of soldiers and government security forces at the Peninsula Hotel in Manila’s Makati business district today. Some of the reporters were released in a few hours while others remained in detention through...

NEW YORK - The New York Times, feeling the squeeze affecting newspapers everywhere, said Wednesday it would eliminate about a dozen support staff jobs from its newsroom. Executive editor Bill Keller told Times employees in an e-mail message that the job cuts were the first to affect the paper's newsroom "in recent memory," but would not involve laying off any reporters. Keller said the paper would...

Agence France-Presse (AFP) has bought a 30 per cent stake in the citizen journalism platform Scooplive, which will be renamed Citizenside. AFP has stated that it will not take part in editorial decisions on the site, which allows users to publish and sell films and photos for commission. According to a press statement from the agency, it is hoped the investment will allow AFP to 'get closer to...

NEW YORK - Leading news organizations and other publishers have proposed changing the rules that tell search engines what they can and can't collect when scouring the Web, saying the revisions would give site owners greater control over their content. Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other top search companies now voluntarily respect a Web site's wishes as stated in a document known as "robots.txt,"...