News

A new self-assessment website has been launched to provide journalists and those who work them with a confidential tool to help them determine if they are suffering the effects of post traumatic stress. This unique web-based clinic and research facility has been designed by Dr Anthony Feinstein, the world's foremost authority on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in journalists, and is backed...

How many people are buying copies of the newspaper you are now reading? This may not much matter much to you, but it bothers the people who produce them - a concern that is growing daily. It is not hard to see why. Newspaper revenues come from two sources - sales and advertising - with the latter directly influenced by the scale of the distribution and the demographics of those who buy the paper...

March 11, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than 60 media representatives from a handful of countries have wrapped up the first day of a conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Persian-language media. Organizers hope the three-day gathering will result in the formation of an association of Persian-speaking journalists and find grounds for future cooperation. "Thirty years ago, when I began working as a...

Ivan Safronov did not die immediately, despite falling four floors from a window in his Moscow apartment block. Witnesses say he tried to get to his feet after hitting the ground, but then collapsed for the final time. The police say the death of the well-respected journalist, who worked for the daily Kommersant newspaper, has all the hallmarks of suicide - though they are willing to consider the...

My broadband connection went down earlier this year, and I was briefly forced to use a dial-up Internet service provider. I considered which of the icons to click on my desktop: “Free 6 Month AOL Membership,” or “EarthLink,” or “NetZero First Month Free!” I went for the 30-day free trial on EarthLink, and up popped a headline-news crawl. This provoked something of a flashback to 1997, when this...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has rejected a request by the China Newspaper Association to withdraw the Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to journalist Shi Tao, who was imprisoned for writing about restrictions on the media in the run-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Golden Pen of Freedom will be awarded to Shi at the 60th World Newspaper Congress, 14th World...

The Associated Press (AP) and CNN have apologised to Taiwan Vice-President Annette Lu for a controversial article about earlier last week, the country’s Central News Agency has reported quoting a Presidential office release. Taiwan Vice-President Annette Lu announces her candidacy for president, Tuesday, March 6, 2007, in Taipei, Taiwan. Lu's chances of winning next year's elections are slim, and...

A daily paper that was widely rumoured to have been taken over by Zimbabwe's secret service has stopped publishing, it emerged on Friday. The Daily Mirror, originally a semi-private paper that was owned by moderate ruling party member and intellectual Ibbo Mandaza has not published an edition since Tuesday. Jonathan Kadzura, the board chairperson of the Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group, told the...

New York, March 8, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the arrest of Atiqullah Khan Masud, editor and publisher of the popular Bengali-language daily Janakantha, in a military raid on the Dhaka newspaper’s office Wednesday night. Bangladeshi police today accused Masud of corruption, criminal activities, and “tarnishing the country’s image abroad” through his newspaper’s...

Just when US journalists are debeating the issue of protection of sources, a chequebook journalism scandal — the concept of paying sources — is going to make matters worse. The New York Times acknowledged Tuesday that a reporter who wrote an award-winning article in 2005 about a teenage Internet pornographer helped gain the boy's trust by sending him a $2,000 cheque. Former New York Times reporter...