News

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, September 15, 2006 - Five years after Eritrea's brutal crackdown on the independent press, the Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the release of 13 journalists held incommunicado in secret jails and two other journalists forced into extended military service. Basic information about the jailed journalists - most of whom were swept up in a September 18, 2001...

The Indian Media Group (IMG) has called on the Government to ensure that all provisions of the proposed Broadcasting Bill including content code are applied to Prasar Bharti and Doordarshan. In a communication to the Government, the Group, which is an umbrella society representing Indian companies in television broadcasting, radio and print media sectors, has pointed out that this was essential as...

Spain's two largest newspapers, El País and El Mundo, have launched into a fierce row over their reporting of investigations into the Islamist train bombings that killed 191 Madrid commuters two and a half years ago. The outbreak of hostilities between the country's most influential dailies follows the publication in El Mundo of a series of interviews with a small-time Spanish crook accused of...

The India Today group is going to launch a morning daily general newspaper. The proposed newspaper is expected to be launched in Delhi. With this move, the Aroon Purie-promoted media giant will clash head on with Bennett, Coleman & Co (which runs Times of India) and Hindustan Times Ltd. India Today CEO Ashish Bagga declined to comment on the group’s new foray. However,industry sources said it was...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Senior journalist, Maqbool Hussain Siyal, who was also a district Correspondent for Online News Network, DIK, was shot dead by some unidentified gunmen. The 32-year old journalist was on his way to meet PPPP leader Nawab Azek ‘s residence when two unknown gunmen riding a bike fired upon him near a Toyota showroom situated on the northern Circular Road. Bullets pierced the...

A NEWSPAPER cartoonist has dared to defy a taboo on depictions of China’s leaders — and has had his wrist slapped. Kuang Biao, who works for the News Express in the southern city of Guangzhou, has been suspended for a month for his cartoon, which showed a weeping Hu Jintao, the Chinese President. Mr Kuang is allowed to continue to draw — but only under a pseudonym. He told The Times that he always...

India has become one of the first countries in the world to grant government accreditation to journalists working on the Internet, in a clear acknowledgement of the use of modern technology in disbursing news. Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, the Union minister for information and broadcasting in the United Progressive Alliance government, gave his approval last week for providing Press Information Bureau...

NEW DELHI: The Indian Media Group (IMG) wants the government to consult the yet-to-be formed Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) before formulating any policy in the broadcasting sector. Also, the provisions of the proposed Broadcast Bill must be applied to public broadcaster Prasar Bharati as well, IMG has said in its inputs on the draft broadcast Bill sent to the information and...

The Prophet Muhammed cartoon crisis between the West and the Muslim world has now also created a row between the head of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Danish Education and Religious Affairs minister during a conference held to boost dialogue and solidarity among civilizations. Speaking about the cartoon crisis OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who is also a Turkish...

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Five journalists from Australia`s "Channel Seven" television station will be deported later on Thursday for violating Indonesia`s immigration law by entering Papua province on tourist visas. "They have clearly violated their visa-on-arrival which is only valid for tourist activities or a social visit, not for working," Desra Percaya, a spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign...