News

An appeal court in Sanandaj, in Iran’s Kurdish northwest, yesterday reduced journalist Ako Kurdnasab’s sentence from three years to six months in prison after it overturned his conviction on a spying charge but upheld his conviction for “trying to overthrow the government by means of journalistic activities.” “We welcome the quashing of Kurdnasab’s espionage conviction but the fact remains that a...

Mint has launched a Bangalore edition. Published by HT Media Ltd, the publishers of Hindustan Times and Hindustan, Mint aims to redefine the way business news is presented to Indian readers. The Wall Street Journal is Mint’s exclusive partner in India. Bangalore, the IT hub of the nation, becomes Mint’s third edition after New Delhi and Mumbai. The launch happened Monday. Mint claims to be the no...

US Internet giant Yahoo has settled a Californian lawsuit brought by the families of journalist Shi Tao and pro-democracy activist and blogger Wang Xiaoning, who were convicted and imprisoned on information which Yahoo! gave the Chinese authorities. Yahoo has agreed to cover the legal costs of the plaintiffs but said details of the settlement were confidential. It said it would work to provide...

November 14, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Iranian officials have again imprisoned Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, the head of Iran's Democratic Front and the publisher of a now-banned weekly newspaper, "Payam-e Daneshjou-ye Basiji." Tabarzadi, 47, was originally accused by Tehran's Revolutionary Court on charges of forming Iran's Democratic Front, defaming Iran's supreme leader, distributing anti-establishment...

Reporters Without Borders today appealed to the countries taking party in the four-day Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that began yesterday in Rio not to allow the issue of online free expression to be eclipsed by the debate about the United States’ dominant role in Internet governance. Website domain names are managed by ICANN, a California-based non-profit organisation which could in theory...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 9 November 2007, Globovisión television station was accused of inciting the public to commit violence through their coverage of the violent acts against journalists and students during a 7 November march against the constitutional reform. The accusation was filed at the Public Prosecutor's Office by a member of Venezuela's United Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Unido de...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders welcomes the provisional release on 9 November 2007 of Felisberto da Grâça Campos, the editor of the weekly "Semanario Angolense", pending the outcome of his appeal against the eight-month sentence he received on 3 October on charges of defaming, insulting and denigrating a former minister. The judge who tried Grâça Campos originally ruled that he had to...

November 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Azerbaijan has imprisoned its third journalist in the past month, adding to its reputation as the leading jailer of journalists in Europe and Central Asia. Genimet Zahidov, an editor for the opposition daily "Azadliq" and vocal critic of President Ilham Aliyev's regime, was sentenced and sent to pretrial detention on November 11. He will spend two months in detention...

The now infamous saga highlights the difficulties for U.S. communications companies that do business with China. Just one week after a public shaming before Congress, Yahoo settled on Nov. 13 a civil lawsuit accusing the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet power of cooperating with Chinese authorities in the jailing of journalist Shi Tao for a decade. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. A reporter...

NEW DELHI (AFP) — The top-selling Daily Mail and a leading Indian magazine group are to launch a newspaper targeting women readers in India's booming media market. A man carries a 'Daily Mail' edition in Paris. The India Today Group said on Tuesday the paper, backed by Daily Mail publishers Associated Newspapers, would hit New Delhi streets by the end of the week with a print run of 120,000 copies...