News

Public interest in natural disasters, sports and political scandals in the United States (US) has fallen in the last two decades, the first quite precipitously, a Pew Research Centre survey has found. Three categories of news shifted downwards, and two of those changes could conceivably be regarded as symbolic of greater seriousness. Interest in natural disasters fell precipitously from an index...

Google has struck deals with four major international news agencies that will see its Google News site become a publisher of their news stories. Google News allows consumers to search by keywords for news summaries and links to news stories, grouping together related stories based on a computer analysis of the material’s underlying thematic relationships. The service is available internationally...

China has adopted an emergency response law that bans the spread of false information, but also requires timely information from the government about major accidents, health threats and disasters. The law outlines punishments for media outlets that spread false information about disasters — a move that press freedom organisaitons say is designed to muzzle reporters. Relative of a miner who is...

The death of an Iraqi translator and interpreter employed by the US television network CBS News brings the number of journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003 to 200, according to Reporters sans frontières (RSF). RSF voiced dismay on learning of the murder of Anwar Abbas Lafta, a translator and interpreter employed by CBS News. Lafta’s body...

The International Press Institute (IPI), and its affiliate, the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), are becoming increasingly concerned about possible political pressure on the Slovenian media. One of the allegations is that the Slovenian government is indirectly influencing the media through its exploitation of business relationships with companies that have financial holdings in a...

Only days after a Danish labour court granted freelance journalists the right to be represented by their union in bargaining arrangements a landmark collective agreement has been reached with one of the country’s major publishers. The International Federation of Journalists today welcomed the signing of an agreement between the Danish Journalists’ Union and Aller Press, which controls 80 per cent...

On the eve of Uzbekistan’s national holiday tomorrow, Reporters Without Borders condemns the severity of governmental repression of independent news media and human rights activists, especially when they try to point out the lack of democracy and freedoms, combat discrimination or expose corruption or torture. “In office since independence in 1991 and reelected for five years in 2000, President...

A last-minute agreement between Swedish Journalists' Union SJF and the Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association over new pay and conditions for the country's journalists Thursday averted a major confrontation between more than 5,000 newspaper journalists and the country’s press employers. The deal means that industrial action planned to start mid-day Thursday was called off. The action would have...

A court in Russia’s west-central republic of Tatarstan has convicted five members of a criminal gang in the 2000 murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Igor Domnikov, the newspaper reported Thursday. The convictions are the first involving a journalist murdered for his or her work since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). During that time, CPJ found, 14 journalists have been...

An investigative journalist in Sri Lanka has been facing death threats after he made startling revelations about Sri Lanka’s purchase of Mig-27 fighter jets from Ukraine. Press freedom organisation have urged European and US embassies to do their utmost to protect Iqbal Athas of the Sunday Times, after receiving an email from the journalist in which he said he feared for his life and had gone into...