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NEW DELHI: Unhappy with the draft that has been prepared on content regulation, information and broadcasting secretary SK Arora has asked the panel responsible to rework it. Though no specific reasons were cited, the ministry is apparently unhappy with the way some of the issues have been dealt with as also the length of the 65-page draft, which is seen as being too unwieldy. Earlier in the week...

KATHMANDU: The Nepalese media that was vibrant and proud even during 14 months of King Gyanendra's absolute rule is today hanging down its head in shame amid reports that journalists received money from the Royal government. The Nepalese government revealed that about 90 journalists affiliated with various news media received money during the period of royal direct rule to "write about the peace...

OTTAWA—The newspaper industry has reacted negatively to a Senate committee recommendation that the Competition Act should be changed so that media mergers are reviewed and then approved by the government. Calling the recommendation "troubling," Anna Kothawala of the Canadian Newspaper Association said yesterday that the committee was being inconsistent. "In one breath they say that they are not...

Journalist Hayatullah Khan took a photo of something Pakistan's government said was never there. Within days he disappeared without a trace, dragged off by masked men. Last week, six months after his abduction, his body was found dumped in North Waziristan, handcuffed and shot in the back. The tragic news has startled the nation, sparking protests, and the government ordered a judicial probe into...

In March 2004, WorldNetDaily reported on Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and my efforts to free him. Choudhury, a Muslim, was accused of spying for Israel after his 2003 articles warned Bangladeshis about the rise of Islamists there, urged his country to recognize Israel, and advocated religious equality and mutual respect. Then, as he was about to board a plane for Bangkok on...

NEW YORK - The Bush administration and The New York Times are again at odds over national security, this time with new reports of a broad government effort to track global financial transfers. The newspaper, which in December broke news of an effort by the National Security Agency to monitor Americans' telephone calls and e-mails, declined a White House request not to publish a story about the...

New York, June 23, 2006—A journalist imprisoned in the Democratic Republic of Congo since April on defamation charges was secretly convicted and sentenced to four months in jail over a week ago, a press freedom group reported today. The Kinshasa-based organization, Journaliste en Danger (JED), told the Committee to Protect Journalists that one of its lawyers found evidence of the verdict in a...

New York, June 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by a proposal sent to Panama’s President Martín Torrijos to stiffen penalties for defamation, including a doubling of prison terms. A commission of lawyers and academics, which was set up by Torrijos to examine penal code reform, made the proposals in a draft bill last week, Jean Marcel Chéry, a reporter for the Panama City...

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 (IPS) - If one were to ask Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena why she chose to report from Afghanistan, Algeria, Somalia and Iraq prior to February 2005, despite the many perils that face reporters in war zones and areas of conflict, her response would probably be similar to the one she gave to journalist Amy Goodman of the radio news show Democracy Now!. "I can't go only...

Media reports indicate that the cameraman, Martin Adler, was a Swedish citizen who frequently worked for the British television station Channel 4. The cameraman was filming a rally in Mogadishu when the incident occurred. Mohamed Dare, an editor at the news agency Horn Afrik who was standing near the cameraman, described to VOA what happened. Militia from Islamic Courts Union arrive at rally...