News

From children’s programmes to sports broadcasts, the BBC swung an axe on at least 10 per cent of its workforce on Thursday in an effort to push through £1.7bn in savings over the next six years. Announcing his controversial “reprioritisation” plan, director-general Mark Thompson told staff that those who survived would be working for a smaller but fitter and more flexible BBC. Apart from the job...

More than 160 years of articles from the Economist are set to become available online with the launch of The Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003. The archive will contain more than 600,000 pages of the weekly magazine's reporting and analysis. It is a joint project between Gale - part of Cengage Learning - and the Economist. "The Economist Historical Archive is more than a database - it is a...

Advertising is likely to start appearing on the BBC.com website from next month. BBC Worldwide is moving quickly to generate revenues from its global audience following approval for the controversial plan from the BBC Trust. From later today, an "advertise with us" link is set to appear for the first time on BBC.com news pages. BBC.com has an estimated 26.5m international visitors a month...

New York, October 18, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is distressed to learn of the shooting death of Azar Abbas Haidri, a staff reporter for The Post, the Islamabad-based, English-language daily. Azar’s body was found in Karachi early Tuesday morning. He had gone there to celebrate the Muslim Eid holiday with his family. “We offer our condolences to the family and friends of Azar Abbas...

(MISA/IFEX) - On 16 October 2007, a police officer manhandled "The Star" photographer Matthews Baloyi and confiscated equipment belonging to him, while chief photographer Chris Collingridge was arrested for taking down the registration number of a private car used by a police officer. Collingridge was later released. The incident took place following heated scenes between the South Africa Police...

(FMM/IFEX) - 17 October 2007, Colombo, Sri Lanka - It was reported to the Free Media Movement (FMM) that on two recent occasions Sri Lankan security forces openly censored media and barred photojournalists from carrying out their duties. FMM expresses its concern that such actions are detrimental to freedom of expression and further erode media freedom in Sri eLanka. In one incident, security...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 18 September 2007, Judge Haydee Monzón, of the First Criminal Transitory Court of Lima, convicted the editor of the newspaper "La República", Gustavo Mohme Seminario, as well as cartoonist Carlos Tovar Samanez ("Carlín") and journalists Ángel Páez and Edmundo Cruz, of aggravated defamation. The ruling imposes a two-year suspended prison sentence and the payment of 50,000 soles (US...

Hamas has decided to issue its own press cards to journalists operating in the Gaza Strip - a move that has drawn sharp criticism from the majority of Palestinian journalists. Hamas's decision is seen by many Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip as an attempt to restrict their work and control news coverage from that area. "Now Hamas will decide who can work as a journalist and who can't,"...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, October 16, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists released the following statement today after Chadian authorities issued the second state of emergency since May including a blanket suppression of media across the country. "We are deeply concerned by the state of emergency in Chad which reintroduces blanket censorship of the press," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator...

BAGHDAD - Five Iraqi journalists were killed in separate attacks Sunday, marking one of the deadliest days for reporters covering war-torn country in nearly a year. Four reporters for Iraqi media organizations were reported shot to death in ambushes near Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Previously reported was the death of Salih Saif Aldin, a correspondent for The Washington Post who apparently was shot...