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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. media industry is on the brink of a second downturn in a decade, one that could accelerate the divisions between fast-growing targeted advertising and traditional formats aimed at mass audiences. Since the last advertising recession following the Internet bust in 2000, the world's largest media companies have tried to adapt to deep technological changes, from the rise...

November 21, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A representative for a respected Moscow-based rights group has linked the recent murder of a prominent Kyrgyz journalist to Uzbekistan's presidential election scheduled for next month. Alisher Saipov, an ethnic Uzbek whose reports frequently criticized the authorities in neighboring Uzbekistan, was gunned down in southern Kyrgyzstan on October 24. Vitalii Ponomarev of...

NEW YORK, Nov 21 (IPS) - Nearly 500 journalists have been murdered in the last 15 years, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and about 85 percent of those crimes have gone unpunished. On Tuesday, CPJ honoured five journalists who embody courage in the face of censorship with its 2007 International Press Freedom Awards. The situation in the countries from which...

The new, wholly owned Internet subsidiary of HT Media Ltd, Firefly eVentures Ltd has acquired social networking site Desimartini.com in an attempt to enter one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian Internet space. Terms were not being disclosed, though HT Media said it was for less than $10 million (Rs 39.3 crore). “Everything is becoming localised and as broadband penetration improves, we...

LAHORE: Political pundit and talk show host Dr Shahid Masood appeared live from Dubai on Geo News last Saturday. This was no ordinary broadcast. Geo, which had been beaming worldwide from the Arab emirate since its inception in 2002, had been verbally informed that it was being shut down. “We are proud of this moment,” said Masood, visibly shaken as a clock counted down the minutes to the...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Bilal Hussein’s career as a photojournalist nearly ended soon after it began. Hussein, who had been working for The Associated Press for about three months, volunteered to stay in his native Fallujah as U.S. forces prepared to assault the city to drive out Sunni religious extremists. It was a decision not taken lightly. Once known as the “city of mosques,” Fallujah had become the...

RAJAVOLU: A reporter of a Telugu daily, Y Viswanatham, faced the wrath of a villager, for allegedly taking the pictures of his house renovated with the funds diverted from the Indiramma Housing scheme at Rajavolu under Rajahmundry Rural mandal on Monday. According to sources, Raju, a driver of former sarpanch of Rajavolu, and his followers attacked Viswanatham causing severe injuries to him. Later...

Li Changqing, a Chinese journalist who was imprisoned for alerting the public to an outbreak of dengue fever before the authorities, has been awarded the 2008 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers. Li, a reporter and deputy news director of the 'Fuzhou Daily' in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, was sentenced to three years in prison in January...

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF condemns the arrest of three activists of the pro-democracy party Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), including Frenchwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, a renowned freedom of expression activist. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van is a regular contributor to the Vietnamese community media in exile: the monthly "Viet Nam Dan Chu" ("Democracy in Vietnam") and Radio Chan Troi Moi (New Horizon - the voice of...

(BIANET/IFEX) - Gün TV, a local station in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, is the only channel to have broadcast Kurdish programmes for the past year and a half. However, the channel, which is legally allowed to broadcast four hours a week in Kurdish, has faced many difficulties, both over its news and music programmes. Gün Radio-TV representative Ahmet Birsin says that, because they are obliged...