News

Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay today on learning that freelance photographer Robson Barbosa Bezerra was gunned down on the evening of 8 February as he was returning home in Rio de Janeiro. The organisation expressed its condolences to the family and urged the police to investigate the possibility that he was killed in connection with his work. “If it is confirmed that the motive was...

(CJES/IFEX) - A CJES correspondent has been sentenced to three months in prison on spurious criminal charges. On 22 January 2007, Uzbek journalist and human rights defender Umida Niyazova was arrested and taken to the pre-trial detention unit in the Uzbek city of Andijan. She was detained for four days. On 26 January, she was handed over to the Office for Prosecution of Transport Offenses in...

Journalists at almost half of Sweden's newspapers received personal threats in 2006. Two thirds of all newspaper editors were threatened with physical injury or damage to property during the same period. In some cases the threats had the desired effect, as newspapers decided to drop their coverage of sensitive issues, according to a study carried out by Mid Sweden University in Sundsvall. The...

Nearly six out of 10 journalists in Hong Kong believe press freedom has diminished since the territory returned to Chinese sovereignty. Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) members staging a protest. About 60 per cent of the journalists interviewed thought that self-censorship was more serious now than 10 years ago as evidenced by the recent tendency of the press to downplay either negative...

BBC World and international market research firm Synovate have announced a global survey partnership which will look at the global news agenda. Haze, which according to a meteorological official was caused by a change in direction of the south wind, covers the business district in Bangkok, Thailand Tuesday, February 6, 2007. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he is committed to urgent...

Ubiquitous broadband network connections and digital devices that permeate every situation of daily life will allow people to use information, communication and services at work, at home and on the move, says a report by one of the world’s leading organisations for the newspaper and media industries. A screen shows Internet services available through an broadband-connected digital video recorder...

Pune, February 12: THE socio-cultural divide between the English and regional language press had given rise to ‘English elitism’ and a peculiar caste and class structure in the Indian media, said Loksatta editor Kumar Ketkar. He was speaking at a University Grants Commission-sponsored National Conference on ‘Regional Language Press: New Era, New Challenges’ organised by the UoP’s Department of...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, February 12, 2007 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the brutal attack on Friday against the editor of a private bi-monthly after the newspaper published articles critical of the government. Editor Jean Bosco Gasasira of the Kinyarwanda-language Umuvugizi remained in intensive care in a hospital in the capital Kigali late today after being attacked by three...

Monday, February 12, 2007 (New Delhi): Leading Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi on Monday launched an edition in Delhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh receiving its first copy. Chairman and Managing Director of Mathrubhumi M P Veerendrakumar, presented the first copy of the 22-page daily to Singh at his residence. It is the newspaper's thirteenth edition. The Prime minister, wishing the newspaper...

President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday appointed Oh Young-jin, the economics desk editor at the English-language newspaper The Korea Times, as his secretary for overseas communications, Roh's office announced. Oh, who joined the local daily in 1988, will succeed Sun Mi-ra who quit for personal reasons, Chong Wa Dae said. Oh also served as political desk editor of The Korea Times between May 2003 and...