News

The media in Saudi Arabia has begun to broach topics such as religious extremism, women's rights and unemployment that were once strictly off limits. The changes have provided new insight into what has long been one of the most closed and conservative societies in the world. In speeches broadcast on Saudi television, King Abdullah has repeated what is now the dominant message of his reign - Saudi...

Moscow: The Editor-in-Chief of Danish Jyllands-Posten, Joernn Mikkelsen, described the newspaper's publication of cartoons on the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as being a "genuine journalistic exercise". Speaking at a special session (Lessons from the Mohammad cartoon clash) as part of the 59th World Newspaper Congress and the 13th World Editors Forum, Mikkelsen reiterated that the intention behind the...

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - All Web sites are alike. Regardless of their owners, they can all do the same set of things. In that fact lies the profound crisis facing all aspects of the media industry. It doesn't matter whether a Web site's owner once focused on publishing newspapers or magazines, broadcasting television or radio, making music or producing movies, or even selling soft drinks. Any Web site...

RUSSIA'S richest man, Roman Abramovich, is reported to have bought Russian business daily Kommersant, raising fears that one of the last bastions of press freedom in the country could be muted. Mr Abramovich is believed to have close ties to the Kremlin. At Moscow's request, he agreed last year to serve a second term as governor of the remote Russian arctic region of Chukotka. Separately, former...

MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's security bodies intend to repatriate a Russian reporter for allegedly taking part in mass anti-NATO protests in the Crimea, a Russian newspaper official said Friday. Alexander Kots, a special correspondent covering developments in hot spots for the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid, was ordered out of the former Soviet republic after a week on the Crimean...

Nouakchott - The military junta in Mauritania has adopted a new media law, scrapping previous requirements for newspapers to obtain government permits before publishing, according to reports on Thursday. Government spokesperson Cheik Ould Ebb, cited by the official Agence Mauritanienne d'Information (AMI) news agency, said the new law "puts to an end the censorship system". "The law aims at...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. newspaper industry is likely to face a "somber" second half of the year, with circulation and advertising revenue remaining under pressure, according to an analyst's report released on Friday. The report casts doubt on any hopes of a major recovery for an industry that has seen share prices fall by 15 percent in the last 12 months amid declining readership and a...

NEW YORK, June 8 (Reuters) - The boardroom battle at Tribune Co. over a share buyback plan underscores pressures facing the newspaper industry, including sinking share prices, declining readership and competition from the Internet. Some in the industry have responded by batting around ideas such as shutting down newspapers and focusing on online news and advertising. Others suggest cutting...

NEW YORK: Ann Cooper, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, is leaving the organization to run the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's broadcast department, according to a memo from CPJ chair Paul Steiger. The memo, first posted on the Romenesko Web site Wednesday, says Cooper will keep the CPJ post she has held for eight years until the end of June. "CPJ...

New York, June 8, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled that two journalists are to go on trial in Uganda, charged with “promoting sectarianism” in an article criticizing government persecution of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Editor James Tumusiime and reporter Semujju Ibrahim Nganda of the independent Weekly Observer face up to five years in jail if convicted. Their...