News

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders calls on the secretary of the Maldives parliament, the People's Majlis, to rescind a ban on reporter Lushan Saeed of the daily "Miadhu" from entering the parliament building until the end of the year. Saeed, who specialises in parliamentary affairs, was notified of the ban in a letter from the parliament's secretariat on 17 September 2007. He is being...

(RSF/IFEX) - The authorities announced the suspension of a finance ministry official on 14 September 2007 for criticising the military government in blog posts. The announcement came eight days after the military proclaimed a state of emergency to prevent the return from exile of former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who is accused of inciting the military government's overthrow. Charges were...

(MISA/IFEX) - The chief executive officer of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH), Henry Muradzikwa, has admitted that political interference and censorship of news reports is the order of the day at the state-controlled national broadcaster. Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications, Muradzikwa said interference with ZBH's editorial policy and...

(AJI/IFEX) - AJI condemns the actions of the Indonesian police and the telecommunications company P.T. Telkom in tapping the cellular telephone account of "TEMPO" journalist Metta Dharmasaputra, and circulating print-out copies of text messages and conversations recorded without the journalist's consent. P.T. Telkom acknowledges that it released the documents at the request of the police. This...

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Moussa Kaka, director of privately-owned Radio Saraouniya and Niger correspondent of Radio France Internationale and Reporters Without Borders, who was arrested yesterday evening and who is being held at police headquarters in Niamey. “Our correspondent’s arrest indicates that, under pressure from the Tuareg rebellion, the Niger...

The former head of a district in Chechnya has been charged as an accomplice in organizing the execution-style murder of a Russian investigative journalist, his lawyer said Friday. Shamil Burayev, who was detained by police last week in Moscow, was charged with "complicity in murder as an accomplice" in the death of Anna Politkovskaya, defense lawyer Pyotr Kozakov told The Associated Press. He gave...

During the reign of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi newspaper Azzaman could only be published in London. Fleeing the government's muscular arm in the 1990s, the newspaper's founder, former Hussein aide Saad al-Bazzaz, was forced to run his media operation out of Europe for nearly a decade. But after Mr. Hussein's expulsion in 2003, Mr. al-Bazzaz set up offices in Baghdad, and he has since been busy...

The Economist Group is using the power of the blogosphere to build 'buzz' for its political stories before they are published. Having identified a group of influential US political bloggers, the media company gives content to these individuals in order to begin circulation, Mike Seery, chief information officer of The Economist Group, told delegates at an AOP forum, in London yesterday. Seery's...

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Time Inc. plans to start an Indian edition of its Fortune magazine under a licensing deal with a local media company, an editor at the U.S.-based business publication said Friday. Under Indian laws, a foreign company has to form a joint venture with a local company or give a license to one to publish news in India. Fortune plans to bring out an Indian edition through a licensing...

Long a staple in Europe, free dailies are relatively new to the US market. Don Nizen, operations director for Boston Now, says free dailies represent 50 percent of the newspaper market in Europe, but just 6 percent in the US. There are now some 39 free daily newspapers in the US, 12 of which have been launched in just the past seven years. While circulation numbers continue to fall for large metro...