News

In the first deal of its kind among Internet rivals, Yahoo and MSN Instant Messaging (IM) users from India and 14 other countries will be able to invite and chat with each other beginning today. These 15 countries account for over 80 per cent of MSN and Yahoo’s combined user base of around 350 million. The other countries will be covered in a phased manner since they have language issues with IMs...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Police seized more than 100 unpublished Anchorage Daily News photos taken at a shooting scene, then returned them a few hours later after learning the action violated federal law. A similar warrant was served at KTVA-TV, and police also later returned a video of aired footage that was taken. Police officials said they might seek court-ordered subpoenas for the photographs and...

London, England (AHN) - In a new twist on the podcasting craze sweeping media companies, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) has launched a service that instantly generates an audio version of any article in the newspaper. Owned by the New York Times Co., The IHT, is the first English-language website to deliver the service, with Swedish technology company ReadSpeaker. The voice of a female...

Australia has scrapped its foreign media ownership and cross-media restrictions today - giving Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd, Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail & General Trust and Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media the chance to expand their empires. The Australian government announced today that laws preventing press barons owning newspapers and television channels in the same city will be scrapped...

Turkey on Thursday faced growing demands to ease restrictions on freedom of speech after a court confirmed a six-month suspended jail sentence for an ethnic Armenian editor convicted of "insulting Turkishness". The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, said after the ruling this week that Ankara should rewrite its penal code. Human rights groups and Turkish commentators urged the government...

CAIRO, Jul 13 (IPS) - Many journalists and opposition leaders are opposing a new law approved by parliament this week. They say the law fails to protect editors and reporters from imprisonment for so-called press violations. "The passage of this law actually represents a slight deterioration (of press freedom)," Hisham Kassem, vice-chairman of the leading independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm told...

Publisher Pearson PLC has announced that it will be merging the online and newspaper editing desks at Financial Times to create a "multimedia newsroom." "The FT has long been a pioneer in forging an integrated online and print newsroom, with web-first publishing and a unified editorial department," says Financial Times editor Lionel Barber. "Now we must take the next step." The restructuring could...

Nielsen Media Research is promising that its new commercial ratings system will go active by November, to the delight of many media buyers, and it stands to revolutionize television if buyers use it instead of program ratings to negotiate ad prices. But one noted researcher is already finding flaws with the Nielsen plan, saying the numbers will not measure commercial ratings but rather an average...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. newspaper publishers, including Tribune Co. and McClatchy Co. , posted lower quarterly earnings on Thursday due to circulation declines and the loss of advertising to the Web. Along with Media General Inc. and Journal Register Co. , they reported a drop in ad revenue from the auto industry and other national advertisers. Higher newsprint costs and the lure of free online...

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) today condemns the order banning Journalist Abdikarin Omar Moallin of Radio Banadir in Jowhar district of Middle Shabelle region to do his journalism work. The interim administration of Middle Shabelle region informed this morning the order banning him to work as stringer for Radio Banadir in the region. The reason behind the ban is a report he made...