News

Rupert Murdoch's six children are getting an early Christmas present after the family trust Mr Murdoch controls sold more than $360m worth of News Corp shares. The cash pay-out follows a $600m bonanza received by the siblings in February - at the time the biggest distribution of Mr Murdoch's fortune. Proceeds from the sale of 17.5m class A shares are expected to be equally split among the children...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi television journalist was kidnapped on Friday after leaving his home in Baghdad, Iraq's Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said. Muntazer al-Zaidi, a correspondent for al-Baghdadiya television station, disappeared after leaving his home in a busy area of central Baghdad, the non-governmental organization said in a statement. Zaidi's family said they had called his...

(FNJ/IFEX) - Police interfered and arrested 25 journalists at a demonstration organized by the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) Kathmandu chapter from the Southern Gate of Singhadurbar, Nepal Government's Secretariat, on 15 November 2007, at 9:30 a.m. (local time). The demonstration was organized to protest against continuous attacks on and intimidation of journalists, demanding action be...

(MISA/IFEX) - The government has controversially retained Dr. Tafataona Mahoso as the chairperson of the restructured state-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) which will look into the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe's (ANZ) application to be duly licensed despite court findings on his bias against the publishing company. On 30 October 2007, Dr. Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the minister of...

(MISA/IFEX) - The trial of Bright Chibvuri, the editor of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) magazine, "The Worker", which was scheduled to continue in the southwestern border town of Plumtree on 5 November 2007, was postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing strike by some of the country's magistrates. Magistrates in Harare and Bulawayo embarked on the strike action during the week of 5...

(CJFE/IFEX) - (Toronto, November 14, 2007) Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) today hailed the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision affirming the news media's right to publish information in the public's interest as a significant victory for freedom of expression. "The decision will decrease the chilling effect of potential libel suits on reporters and editors," CJFE President Arnold...

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the state of health of jailed blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman and said it supported the complaint which his three lawyers filed yesterday accusing a prison official, identified as Medhat Samir, of conspiring to have him mistreated and held him in solitary confinement. Better known by the blog name of “Kareem Amer,” Suleiman has been held in...

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- A man found guilty of murdering British Broadcasting Corp. journalist Jill Dando had his 2001 conviction overturned by a U.K. court. Judges at the Court of Appeal in London ruled that Barry George must be given a new trial after new findings about scientific evidence put the jury verdict in doubt. ``If this evidence had been given to the jury at the trial, there is no...

BARCELONA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Leading European publishers are coming to terms with what teenage boys and men have known for years -- the Web beats magazines in grabbing their eyeballs. Magazine publishers such as London-based media group Emap (EMA.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Germany's Axel Springer (SPRGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and France's Lagardere have seen a split growing in their...

McLEAN, Va. — USA Today, the highest circulation newspaper in the country and the flagship of industry leader Gannett Co., announced plans today to eliminate about 45 newsroom jobs. The job losses reflect a cut of almost 9 percent to a current newsroom staff of about 500, USA Today spokeswoman Alexandra Nicholson said. They will be scattered throughout news, money, sports and lifestyle sections...