News

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at transparency, the government plans to authorise a high-level of panel comprising vice-president, Lok Sabha speaker and Leader of the Opposition to decide on the head of the proposed regulatory authority for the broadcasting sector. This was being contemplated to ensure that the regulator inspires confidence, Information & Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi told...

New York, July 10, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the loss of respected Eritrean broadcaster Paulos Kidane who, CPJ sources said, died after attempting to join the dozens of journalists fleeing the government’s absolute control of the country’s media since a massive crackdown on the now-defunct private press. Kidane, a presenter with the Amharic service of state broadcaster Eri...

KATMANDU, Nepal: A search continued for a journalist abducted last week in western Nepal and one suspect has been arrested, a police official said Tuesday. Freelance journalist Prakash Thakuri was kidnapped July 5 from his home in Kanchanpur town, about 550 kilometers (330 miles) west of the capital Katmandu, said police official Chabilal Joshi. Officials received an e-mail Monday night claiming...

MOSCOW, July 9 — The American ambassador to Russia, William J. Burns, urged the Kremlin on Monday to “redouble its efforts” to solve the case of the American journalist Paul Klebnikov, who was shot three years ago in a contract murder here. The ambassador spoke at a gathering of Mr. Klebnikov’s family and friends here at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Mr. Klebnikov, an American of Russian...

BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhua) -- A leading Chinese trade union for journalists is considering action against a bogus "official" website for the organization. The website -- www.acja.cn -- runs genuine news industry information and links, as well as the emblem of the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA), the ACJA announced here Wednesday. "The fake website claims it is the website of the ACJA and...

A former Boeing employee was charged today with criminally obtaining sensitive documents from the company's computer system, including information police say later appeared in news stories in The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Gerald L. Eastman, 45, of Kent, was accused of 16 felony counts of first-degree computer trespass in court papers filed by the King County Prosecutor's Office...

Police arrested the editor of a local daily and the local correspondent of a television channel in an extortion case last night. The police picked up Sazedur Rahman Bablu, editor of the daily Hawa, and Nazrul Islam Mukul, Kushtia correspondent of CSB News, during a raid on the newspaper's office at about 8:15pm. The daily Hawa is owned by Syed Mehedi Ahmed Rumi, a former lawmaker and general...

THE likelihood of Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and journalist Colm Keena going to prison diminished greatly yesterday when no motion for committal to prison was brought by the Mahon Tribunal over the controversial Bertie Ahern “dig-out” payments story. The Mahon Tribunal yesterday started proceedings in the High Court aimed at compelling the newspaper to produce the document which led to a...

KARACHI: Journalists of the print and electronic media, from Karachi to Lahore and Islamabad, are under threat and they need to unite across the country. This was stated Tuesday during a Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) meeting held in protest of the Islamabad Press Club being sealed by the government, the harassment of newspaper employees in Karachi by armed individuals and the ban imposed on...

ASMARA • Eritrea, where the private media was shut down in 2001, is the “largest jailer of journalists” in Africa, a press freedom group said yesterday. The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) called for pressure to be put on the Eritrean government to “release the imprisoned journalists whose only transgression was to have expressed their opinions.” “Based on information provided to...