News

New York, July 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the detention of Al-Jazeera television crews covering Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel amid allegations that they were “assisting the enemy.” Walid al-Omary, Jerusalem-based bureau chief for the Arab satellite TV station, told CPJ that he had been detained by Israeli police three times in two days for his...

New York, July 17, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists has confirmed that Solomon Aregawi, owner of the defunct Amharic-language newspaper Hadar, has been charged with antistate crimes in connection with his journalistic work. This raises the number of journalists jailed for their work in Ethiopia to 18 from 17, according to CPJ research. Three are serving lengthy sentences under Ethiopia’s...

Ren Xin reads news almost every day but does not subscribe to any newspaper. The 25-year-old office worker gets her information fix from the Internet. "I also watch TV for news. Sometimes, I buy a newspaper or a magazine in the subway, but that is rare," she says. Information-thirsty Ren is one of a rising number of Chinese youth who are increasingly shying away from traditional media, especially...

Lagos - A Nigerian editor has won this year's CNN/Multichoice African journalist of the year award, his newspaper said on Monday. Shola Oshunkeye, general editor of the independent Daily Sun newspaper, was named the 11th winner of the award on Saturday night in the Mozambican capital Maputo. The 50-year-old editor emerged the winner with a piece - Niger's graveyard of the living - he wrote in...

PARIS (Reuters) - A black journalist is due to host the most watched evening news in France on Monday, a first in a country that has been rocked by violent protests in some of its poorest and most ethnically mixed neighbourhoods. Non-white television journalists are common in Britain and the United States but France's ethnic minorities are less visible in news media, particularly on the two...

The concept of the free commuter newspaper which dawned at the turn of the millennium is alive and well — and growing worldwide. Yet the concept has grown beyond its original point of distribution, beyond its original business model, and even beyond its content model, says a new report by the International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA). The INMA report, Free and 'Lite' Newspapers: The...

After a week of keeping critics on tenterhooks, the Indian government now seems determined to push through the draconian Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2006. Once made into an Act, it would be something that would even made Russian President Vladimir Putin blush. WHO'S TALKING? The Union minister for information and broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunshi attempted to lob the ball into the court...

In Colombia reports of attacks on the press do no buck the trend. The pattern this year has been one of issuing threats and making a journalist flee his/her city of work. Six journalists have had to flee this year, a seventh was kidnapped, and another murdered. UNARMED AND DANGEROUS: Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after surrendering their weapons in Alvarado, Colombia...

New Delhi: The government on Saturday dismissed as “baseless” and “out of context” the attack on the draft Broadcast Bill and ruled out “dilution” of the provisions of the measure that has been severely criticised as “draconian” by the media. “I can say with responsibility that the bill will be a media friendly, progressive legislation not seen anywhere in the world,” Information and Broadcasting...

NEW DELHI: Information & broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi indicated on Saturday that there will be no discussion with the media industry on the controversial broadcast Bill. He said, the Bill would neither be ‘‘diluted’’ nor ‘‘polluted’’ and would be brought to Parliament in the coming Monsoon session. The minister dismissed as ‘‘baseless’’ and ‘‘out of context’’ the attack on the draft...