News

July 12, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The government of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is increasingly impatient with what it sees as a front of unjustified criticism in the media. It has impugned critics as motivated by either domestic political grudges or the discreet machinations of foreign powers. The sum of reports in recent days gives the impression of a government exasperated by -- but intent on...

Reporters Without Borders has condemned a ban on the online publication China Development Brief and warned diplomats and investors in China of a growing censorship of socio-economic news, preventing any reliable assessment of the real state of the country. The Beijing Statistics Bureau and the Public Security Bureau on 4 July ordered the site’s founder Nick Young to halt publication. The...

Reporters Without Borders today deplored the arbitrary and repressive methods of a regime whose culture minister recently accused the media of promoting a “creeping coup” against the government. Judicial officials have in the past 10 days ordered the suspension of the daily Ham Mihan and the permanent closure of the daily Moshareket, while the new agency ILNA’s future seems uncertain after...

The free newspaper business in Israel is about to become a battleground as it appears that no less than three free Hebrew dailies will begin publishing within the next few weeks. Joining the incumbent Israeli, published by the businessman Shlomo Ben Tzvi, will be publications from American billionaire Sheldon Adelson; a joint team of Eli Azur, the owner of The Jerusalem Post, and Dudi Weissman...

Reporters Without Borders today reiterated its call for Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) to be allowed to resume free terrestrial broadcasting after learning that the privately-owned broadcaster will resume transmission by cable and satellite to paying subscribers on 16 July. The government refused to renew RCTV’s terrestrial broadcast licence a month and a half ago. “Since losing its terrestrial...

NEW YORK — A news site that has allowed its users to write and submit their own articles is shutting down, citing unspecified "business issues." Backfence Inc. had "hyperlocal" sites serving 13 communities in the Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Chicago areas. Residents were allowed to write on any topic, including event announcements and neighborhood traffic congestion, without the meddling of...

NEW YORK: Research firm Nielsen/NetRatings announced that it will change its ratings system for Web sites, placing greater emphasis on the time viewers spend on Web sites rather than how many times a page is viewed, the Los Angeles Times reports today. EMarketer Inc. senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson told the Times that the changes won’t necessarily affect advertising decisions so much as it...

NEW YORK: United Press International is cutting 11 positions from its Washington, D.C., bureau, including its lone White House correspondent, Richard Tomkins. The move marks the first time in its history that UPI will have no one on that beat. "I have been expecting it for some time," said Tomkins, a seven-year UPI veteran who has covered the White House since 2003. "The company is not doing well...

Reporters Without Borders said today it had been shocked to learn of the murder of photographer Jorge Alejandro Castañeda Martínez, who was gunned down in Guatemala City on 5 July. The 35-year-old had just dropped his sons, aged six and four, off at their school when gunmen opened fire, shooting him a dozen times. He was talking to his wife on his mobile phone when he was killed. Moments before...

The detention of María Haydee Chicas, a journalist employed by an NGO who was arrested along with 13 other people during a demonstration in the northeastern city of Suchitoto on 2 July and charged with “terrorism” is a “grave abuse of authority,” Reporters Without Borders said today, calling for her immediate release. The El Salvador Association of Journalists (APES) said in a statement that, “the...