News

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Gunmen killed an Iraqi newspaper editor Sunday morning outside his home in western Baghdad, a colleague said. Mohan al-Dahir, an editor of the independent Al-Mashriq newspaper, was shot dead by assailants who first tried to kidnap him, said Sayed Ali, another editor at the paper. Al-Dahir, a Shiite Muslim, lived in a Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad. "He had good relations with...

EL FASHER, Sudan, March 3 -- In this dusty market town in northern Darfur, a lucky few with satellite dishes can get news of the war surrounding them from CNN or the BBC. Others rely on a tree. For the past 10 years, Awatif Ahmed Isshag has handwritten monthly dispatches and commentary about life in El Fasher and hung them on a short, wiry tree that scatters shade along the yellow-sand lane by her...

NEW YORK (AP) - The Village Voice, which has had four editors in just over a year, has fired its most recent one after a staff meeting on concerns about racial diversity, a spokeswoman said Saturday. David Blum was fired Friday after just six months as editor in chief of the alternative weekly, Maggie Shnayerson said. His termination followed a Wednesday meeting in which staffers discussed a lack...

Reporters Without Borders today hailed the release of radio journalist Abdul Qudoos after nearly a year in detention. He was set free after a court in the eastern province of Parwan decided on 31 January to drop the charges of attempted murder that had been brought against him. “It is deplorable that Qudoos spent 11 months in prison for no reason,” the press freedom organisation said. “He is the...

As Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today inaugurated festivities marking the 30 anniversary of his proclamation of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that there is still no news of Abdullah Ali Al-Sanussi Al-Darrat, a journalist who was arrested 34 years ago. “Six months after we visited Libya, nothing has changed,” the press freedom...

Reporters Without Borders voiced its support today for the staff of the TV station Cable Guatevisión, who have been receiving death threats since 25 February after broadcasting a report about the murder of four detained police officers inside a prison. The organisation fears criminal infiltration of the police. “The execution of four policemen inside a top-security prison where they were being...

(IFJ/IFEX): The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), supported by a coalition of international and local press freedom and journalists' organisations, has demanded action from the Pakistan government in response to the growing incidents of violence against journalists and the deteriorating press freedom situation. The mission for press freedom, led by the IFJ and its affiliate, the...

Mohamed Alayyan could easily pass for one of his employees at ATV, the new terrestrial television station he plans to launch in Jordan later this year. Dressed in casual shirt and trousers, the 33-year-old looks more like one of his bright young employees rushing about planning programmes and schedules than the boss and owner. While many of his fellow entrepreneurs in the west are vying to create...

News and media websites were identified as being among the fastest growing UK sites experiencing a 28 per cent growth this January, according to figures released by Hitwise. Both the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian Unlimited websites have also reported a positive start to 2007 with the Guardian confirming a record number of visitors in January (15.7 million visitors confirmed by ABC). And just...

So you may have heard: Paris Hilton was ticketed the other day for driving with a suspended license. Not huge news, even by celebrity-gossip standards. Here at The Associated Press, we put out an initial item of some 300 words. But it actually meant more to us than that. It meant the end of our experimental blackout on news about Paris Hilton. It was only meant to be a weeklong ban _ not the...