News

People who visit newspaper websites on an average day are more likely to make online purchases, and make greater use of the Internet for advertising, shopping information and various types of news and information, according to a new study conducted for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). READY TO BUY ONLINE: A group of internet users are seen in Atlanta in a 2004 file photo. Frequent...

The recent breakup of the Knight Ridder Inc. newspaper chain has helped spark interest around the country in returning papers to local or private ownership after decades of expansion by corporate media conglomerates. For example, the Philadelphia Inquirer left Knight Ridder for local ownership, and local groups in Los Angeles and Baltimore are mounting efforts to provoke sales of those cities'...

(SEAPA/IFEX) - Strict new press regulations will take effect in Vietnam starting in July 2006, reports coming out of the country say, amid signs that national leaders are growing wary of the trend toward more aggressive and enterprising journalism. The Deutsche Press Agentur (DPA) is reporting that a new decree has been announced that will, among other things, punish "denying revolutionary...

It was the tsunami of December 24, 2004 which opened the floodgates. For the first time, accounts of a major news event authored by citizens with no professional journalism experience not only made front page news or headlining nightly broadcasts, they achieved recognition in the news industry and the world-at-large as valid and credible sources. HANDBOOK ON CITIZENS: The report examines common...

SHANGHAI/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turning China's 1.3 billion pairs of eyes into the world's top viewing audience is proving tough work for the world's top media firms, who are finding that big numbers don't always translate to big money. News Corp.'s announcement last week that it would sell off a majority of its stake in a Chinese broadcaster marked the latest recent retrenchment by a major media...

The chief editor of an independent Belarusian weekly asked for asylum in neighboring Ukraine after facing official harassment in his homeland, a media watchdog group said Friday. Andrei Shentorovich fled to Ukraine shortly after March's election in Belarus in which authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko won a third term in a vote the opposition and Western observers and governments called...

NEW YORK: The newspapers of the future cheap digital screens that can be rolled up and stuffed in a back pocket have been just around the corner for the last three decades. But by next year, the future may finally have arrived. Some of the world's top newspaper publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web onto...

Journalists in Assam have condemned the recent threat issued by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to four journalists in the state. The ULFA 'commander in chief' Paresh Baruah in a statement on June 8 had accused the journalists of trying to create an atmosphere of confusion over the peace initiative to facilitate direct talks between Government of India and ULFA. OMEGA OF THE ULFA: A...

Tokyo: The Tokyo District Court granted refugee status Tuesday to an Afghan journalist, nullifying an earlier decision by the justice minister denying him asylum and ordering him deported. Presiding Judge Toshihiko Tsuruoka said the man, whose name was withheld to protect his identity, would face persecution in his homeland for reporting news stories critical of Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers...

Iran has banned The Economist magazine for describing the Persian Gulf as merely "the Gulf" in a map published in the latest edition, state television reported Wednesday. It is the second time in two years that Iran has banned such an international publication for failing to use the term "Persian Gulf" in a map. In 2004, it banned the National Geographic atlas when a new edition appeared with the...