News

WASHINGTON -- It has been a week since Al Jazeera English went on the air and Dave Marash, the news channel's Washington-based anchor, is feeling like the "belle of the ball." Everyone he meets is curious about his new job and everyone wants to hear what it is like to work for an outfit that has revolutionized television news and that is shunned by many Americans as a mouthpiece for anti-US...

NAIROBI - Eritrea has arrested at least nine journalists with state-owned media since mid-November in an apparent new crackdown, a global press freedom watchdog said Wednesday. A week after alleging that at least nine others, including three journalists, had died in Eritrean custody over the past 20 months, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “appalled” by the new arrests. RSF said those...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The publishing stock sector is likely to end 2006 with little or no growth as newspaper companies weigh down the industry due to weak advertising revenue and circulation declines. The Dow Jones U.S. Publishing Index is up a slim 1.39 percent over the past 12 months. The index comprises 90 stocks, including heavyweights such as Gannett Co., McClatchy Co., Meredith Corp. and Readers...

New York, November 21, 2006 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Cuban journalist Oscar Mario González, who had been jailed for 16 months without charge. González was freed unexpectedly on Monday without explanation, his daughter Elena González, who lives in Sweden, told CPJ. She said her father was in good spirits but confused. She spoke with him by telephone shortly...

A local newspaper known for its sensational coverage apologized on Monday for printing a front-page picture showing a popular politician's wife covered in blood after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a traffic accident. The photograph in Sunday's edition of the Apple Daily depicted former actress Shao Hsiao-ling, 57, lying prone on a stretcher, her jeans and blouse awash in red, and her...

(PPF/IFEX) - Dilawar Khan Wazir, correspondent for BBC and Pakistan's "Daily Dawn", was released a day after being kidnapped. The journalist, who reached the BBC office in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, on the evening of 21 November 2006, said he had been held blindfolded and was kicked, slapped and questioned about his reporting and his sources. The journalist did not know the identity...

A CORRESPONDENT for Telesur, the TV channel promoted by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was arrested over the weekend on terrorism charges on suspicion he was involved in rebel attacks, Colombian police said on Monday. Freddy Munoz, a local reporter for the Caracas-based channel, was detained on Sunday by DAS, Colombia's state security police, at Bogota's El Dorado airport as he returned on a...

LONDON, november 20: A former Russian spy poisoned in Britain and now hospitalised under guard may have been targeted for his investigation into the killing of prominent anti-Kremlin journalist Anna Politkovskaya, friends and fellow dissidents said on Sunday. Russian businessman prime suspect in Litvinenko poisoning: reportRussia declares terror alert Warmest Jan in Moscow in 130 yearsRussian...

LONDON: A BBC reporter has gone missing in Pakistan after leaving Islamabad for his home town in the northwest of the country, the broadcaster said on Monday. A spokesman voiced concern over the fate of Dilawar Wazir Khan, a journalist for its Urdu service who has not been heard from since early morning Pakistan time. He was seen with his brother Zul Fiqar Ali on Sunday at a hostel near the...

New York, November 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Pakistani authorities to immediately investigate the apparent disappearance of BBC Urdu-language reporter Dilawar Khan Wazir, who has not been heard from since leaving the capital, Islamabad, for his hometown of Dera Ismail Khan this morning, according to the BBC. Khan, who reports from the violent and lawless region of...