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HAMAS openly named the group holding the kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston for the first time yesterday - as family and colleagues prepared to mark the 100th day since his disappearance. Ahmed Youssef, an aide to the deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, said talks were being held with the Doghmush family, a violent clan with its own militia. Mr Youssef said he hoped...

At least three journalists a month since 2001 have fled their country to escape violence, imprisonment, or harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found in a new report for World Refugee Day, June 20. Only one in seven exiled journalists ever returns home, and those who remain in exile face slim opportunities in journalism. Less than one-third of journalists now in exile have...

Hamas militants have killed one of the Palestinian clansmen believed to be holding journalist Alan Johnston, it was reported. Channel 4 News said Hamas knew the group which was holding Mr Johnston and it shot one of them dead. His plight was highlighted in a series of vigils marking his 100th day in captivity. Fellow BBC employees showed their support for the correspondent, who was abducted on...

CAIRO,(SANA)- Arab Journalists Union Tuesday called the United Nation to press US occupation forces and the Iraqi government to offer more protection to journalists and face acts of killings and kidnappings in Iraq. In a statement issued in Cairo, Secretariat General of the Arab Journalists Union demanded the international organization to activate its resolutions in order to condemn the killing of...

Staying tightlipped can pay off if you're running for the "Closed Oyster" trophy -- a satirical recognition of the opponents of free press. This year, the prize went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian president received the annual award from Netzwerk Recherche, a network of German investigative journalists, for his ability to remain taciturn whenever a microphone is put in front of...

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about a lawsuit brought by three descendants of “national heroes” against the opposition newspaper Svoboda Slova, demanding 6.5 million dollars in damages for an alleged “attack on the honour and dignity of their ancestors.” The suit, filed on 21 May, was prompted by a column by the newspaper’s editor, Yerbol Kurmanbayev, questioning whether Karasay...

Tens of thousands of journalists are planning a co-ordinated day of protests in every European capital to highlight a dramatic media crisis over political pressure, falling standards and poor working conditions across Europe. “It’s time to stand up for journalism,” said Aidan White, General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) at a national conference of German journalists on...

Baghdad: Iraq is currently the most dangerous place for journalists to work. Since the war began, 231 journalists and media workers have died in the line of duty, while 15 others were killed in May - making it the deadliest month ever recorded. This month witnessed an unprecedented wave of violence against journalists. A journalist working with an Arab newspaper based in Baghdad told Gulf News...

June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Josh Rushing has gone from Marine Corps spokesman (the role in which he appeared in the 2004 documentary ``Control Room'') to Washington-based reporter for Al Jazeera, known in some quarters as Osama bin Laden's favorite TV network. A profound conversion by most standards, though in his memoir ``Mission Al Jazeera'' Rushing argues it was a natural progression. A Texan who...

An American reporter's account of the surreal world inside Baghdad's top security Green Zone has been named as winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, billed as the world's richest award for non-fiction. The prize was given to the Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran for his "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", which took readers into a bubble of startling Americana....