News

New York, August 31, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the criminal defamation trial of Indonesian journalist Teguh Santosa, who faces charges of defaming Islam by posting online controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. State prosecutors outlined the criminal charges, which under Indonesia’s penal code carry a possible five years in prison, at the trial’s opening...

The reach of the print media in India continues to grow at least in terms of numbers – it has increased from 206 million to 222 million in the last one year. This media sector is being driven largely by newspapers with magazines seeing a sharp decline of 12 per cent, acording to the National Readership Survey (NRS) 2006. SPREADING IT WIDER: Dailies continue to grow, adding 12.6 million readers...

Magazines have registered a 12 per cent drop in readership – from 75 million in 2005 to 68 million this year, according to the just-released findings of the National Readership Survey (NRS) 2006. NOT ENTICING ANYMORE: There have been a number of changes in the Top 10 bracket bracket though the top two – Saras Salil and India Today (English) – remain the same. The readership of Saras Salil dipped...

The big three of the Indian newspaper market – Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar and Eenadu – have retained their position, according to the just-released findings of the National Readership Survey (NRS) 2006. And yes, there is not a single English daily in the Top 10 bracket. HOLDING ON TO ITS POSITION: Dainik Jagran with a readership base of 21,165,000 remains the most widely read newspaper despite...

U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq. The contract calls for assembling a database of selected news stories and assessing their tone as part of a program to provide "public relations products" that...

Newspapers in the United States (US) are successfully extending their reach beyond the core printed products, resulting in net increases in audience, a new study from Scarborough Research has found. The findings are from its Integrated Newspaper Audience (INA) project, a measurement that combines the audience of traditional printed newspapers with the audience of their websites. BIG PHOENIX MARKET...

For newspapers in the US it is less and lesser of print vs online now – as online news becomes a regular part of the daily routines of average Americans, newspapers are expanding their reach to the Web and rapidly developing new products and tools especially for their websites, a new study has revealed. BLOGGING BOSTON: The Boston Globe offers a particularly robust network of blogs. There are...

AHMEDABAD: The editor of a Gujarati eveninger published from Surat was arrested on charges of defamation and using abusive language in his editorial. "The editor was arrested on Tuesday under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 124 (a) for attempting to create hatred and contempt for the government, established by law," Surat Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha said. Samna editor...

AN already grim landscape for independent media in Russia has grown even bleaker with the sale of one of the last major independent newspapers to Kremlin-connected billionaire Alisher Usmanov, journalists and analysts said today. Mr Usmanov announced the purchase late yesterday of the Kommersant publishing house from Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, a business partner of exiled Russian...

China's bloggers—33.4 million strong at last count, and growing fast—can be an unforgiving bunch when something displeases them. In recent weeks a Western English teacher in Shanghai whose blog, Chinabounder, described his sexual conquests of Chinese women drew the venom of netizens and prompted a frenzy of nationalist outrage, including castration threats and calls by a Shanghai Academy of Social...