News

The last decade of 20th century was a period of epochal upheaval in India. The Congress monolith fragmented under mounting pressure of religious, casteist and regional aspirations; tottering economy found remedy in liberalisation and, as a result, burgeoning politico-economic consciousness in the Hindi heartland ensured proliferation of Hindi newspapers. For the first time, Hindi press posed a...

New York, October 30, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Sunday’s murder in central Baghdad of a presenter and a driver for the Iraqi state television channel Atyaf. Unidentified gunmen killed Naqshin Hamma Rashid, 30, and her driver Anis Qassem as the two were driving to work near Haifa Street in the morning, according to CPJ sources. Rashid, a Kurd who was also known by...

New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) India could review the 26-percent foreign equity cap in news and current affairs publications if stakeholders take a collective view on the matter, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said in an important declaration of intent Monday. 'Let the industry decide and get back to me. We will then review the policy. We have an open mind,' Dasmunsi told a...

NEW DELHI: Figure this out. Even as the government busies itself with a policy to put Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from countries such as China, Hong Kong and Macau under an intense security scanner (Pakistan and Bangladesh are already excluded from the benefit of automatic FDI) even for soaps and shampoos, it is quite oblivious to the security threat posed by attempts to fudge something as...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A state-owned Iranian newspaper resumed publication on Saturday, more than five months after it was banned for insulting Iran's Azeri minority. The Culture Ministry's Press Supervisory Board suspended the Iran daily on May 23 after publishing a cartoon that offended Azeris and led to days of unrest in northwestern provinces, where Azeris make up a large majority of the...

NEW YORK -- At Google Inc.'s new office near the Hudson River, Volvo's top U.S. advertising manager has just flown in from California to talk about next year's launch of a new car, aimed at the hip, 20-something crowd. Linda Gangeri, a Volvo executive, wants to hear Google's ideas about online video. She high-fives the company for its recent decision to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube Inc...

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) - Violence in a troubled Mexican province has left an American journalist from New York dead and several other people injured. Protesters in Oaxaca (wuh-HAH'-kah)have barricaded streets and occupied government buildings for five months in a bid to oust the governor. The gunfire erupted in a rough neighborhood when armed men tried to remove a blockade set up by protesters. Both...

(FMM/IFEX) - Free Media Movement (FMM) registers its strong condemnation of continuing threats and harassment directed at Tamil-language media in Sri Lanka. On 23 October 2006, 10,000 copies of the Tamil daily newspaper "Virakesari" were burned by a paramilitary organization, the Karuna group, which operates in the east of Sri Lanka, relevant authorities of "Virakesari" told FMM. This is only the...

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Dow Jones & Co. (DJ) said Friday it agreed to sell six of its community newspapers to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. for $282.5 million in cash, subject to a working capital adjustment. Dow Jones, publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal, said it expects proceeds of about $268 million, which it will use to fund its recently disclosed agreement to acquire...

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 26 — Dean Baquet, the Los Angeles Times editor who publicly opposed staff cuts at his paper last month, encouraged other editors Thursday to push back more against newspaper owners when they propose such cuts. “Sometimes when I sit down with editors and managing editors, I find them all too willing to buy the argument for cuts,” he said. “We need to be a feistier bunch.” He said...