News

The BBC has begun the controversial roll-out of adverts on its BBC.com international news website. BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, hopes the move will bring in an estimated £70m a year. The BBC.com ads, which started to appear from yesterday in certain key markets such as the US, are framed at the top and on the right hand side of web pages, with three major brands signed up for...

(IPI/IFEX) - The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is deeply concerned about the worsening situation for journalists in the South Eastern European (SEE) region. SEEMO is alarmed at the activities of the Croatian police against...

Two top Yahoo Inc. officials on Tuesday defended their company’s role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist but ran into withering criticism from lawmakers who accused them of complicity with an oppressive communist regime. Yahoo gave the Chinese government information about Shi Tao’s online activities, and he was jailed for 10 years. “While technologically and financially you are giants, morally...

They challenge your newspaper literacy, interrupt otherwise intelligible conversations, and add to the difficulty of finding your way. The culprits: India's endemic acronyms, abbreviations and initials. Bureaucrats across the world pack official reports with them, but India distinguishes itself by relishing in their everyday use, from place names to first names and even swear words. In the first...

Reporters Without Borders said today that recent developments and statements made it fear that the authorities in Kyrgyzstan lack the will to properly investigate the murder of journalist Alisher Saipov, against whom a campaign of vilification has been launched. Saipov was shot dead on the evening of 24 October 2007, close to the premises of Radio Free Europe in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. He...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned legislation that enabled a Warsaw court on 30 October to order that the editor of national weekly Gazeta Polska, Tomasz Sakiewicz, and his deputy, Katarzyna Hejke, should be held in police custody for two days prior to the start of a libel trial on 14 December in order, the court said, to ensure they attend. “We condemn article 212.2 of the Polish criminal...

(Globe International/IFEX) - Globe International is launching a six-month project, "Protecting Journalists' Confidential Sources and Repealing the Criminal Defamation Legislation", to provide greater protection for Mongolia's media. The project, funded by the US Embassy, is aimed at promoting the media's role in contributing to transparent and accountable governance and curbing corruption by...

(PPF/IFEX) - Draconian curbs were imposed on the Pakistani media as part of the state of emergency declared by President General Pervez Musharraf on 3 November 2007. The measures to control and restrain the media included suspension of broadcasts of all international news channels as well as national private television channels throughout the country until further notice. Cable operators have been...

New York, November 5, 2007—Pakistan’s government has escalated its efforts since the weekend to silence the press by harassing journalists, attempting to shut down printing presses, and ordering that articles critical of the government be altered, Pakistani journalists told CPJ. According to news editors at the Urdu-language Daily Ausaf in Islamabad and at the Express in Lahore, the papers were...

PARIS (Reuters) - A French journalist arrested with members of the Zoe's Ark group in Chad as they tried to fly 103 African children to Europe said on Monday they had displayed "dramatic amateurishness" and lied about their plans. Marc Garmirian, one of three French reporters released on Sunday, interviewed members of the group during the operation and filmed them putting bandages on children to...