News

With the smoke over the Danish Muhammad cartoons barely having cleared, a new development in the Scandinavian country has the potential to further fray Muslim-Christian relations in Denmark. The co-host of a popular new public television show created to debate religious and cultural differences has divided Danes with her decision to wear a headscarf on air. Some groups are even protesting to get...

On 30 September 2005 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a number of caricatures on the subject of Islam, Muslims and the Prophet Mohammed. It had solicited these as part of a competition in which cartoonists had been asked to address the supposed fear that Danes and other Europeans felt in depicting Islam critically. In response to the publication Muslims in Denmark protested against...

Reuters has teamed up with the Global Voices Online project to help fund a full-time managing editor and outreach work. The Global Voices project is based at the Berkman Center at Harvard University in the US and aims to foster international discussion through a network of bloggers. Reuters will publish selected content Global Voices on its news websites and will help the project with training and...

People like Steve Weber are Google's worst nightmare. Last November, Weber self-published a book about how to sell used books on the Internet. To promote it, Weber created a three-line text ad that ran on Google Inc.'s site as a sponsored link when people searched for any word, or phrase, in his book's index. Each time a consumer clicked his ad, Weber paid Google anywhere from 50 cents to 75 cents...

New York, April 12, 2006–A third journalist from The Independent, a leading Gambian newspaper, was arrested at his home this afternoon, according to his colleagues. Reporter Lamin Fatty’s arrest follows that of Editor Musa Saidykhan and General Manager Madi Ceesay, who have been detained without charge since March 28. Fatty was the author of a story headlined "23 ‘Coup Plotters’ Arrested," which...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday presented the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards in New Delhi. "We are here to recognise the good work of good journalists, and also to pay tribute to the memory of a great publisher," Manmohan said. The Prime Minister added, "India is fortunate to have a free and vibrant media. We must defend its freedom and foster its vibrancy. I am sure the...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about the fate of FM Liberté reporter Eliakim Vanambyl, who was captured by rebels of the United Front for Change (FUC) when they took the central city of Mongo on 11 April 2006. There has been no word of him since then. "Anyone who has reliable information about what has happened to Vanambyl is urged to get in touch with his family or...

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 5 April 2006, Marilu Gambini, a journalist for the programme "Confidencial" broadcast on TV channel 31, left the country with her two young children after having received another death threat on 28 March. The authorities have not yet identified the source of the threat. Gambini has been threatened and beaten several times because of her investigations into drug trafficking in...

A Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court granted ad-interim relief to the Chief Editor of `Deshonnati’ a local Marathi daily, in the case of allegedly abetting suicide of one of his staff members. While, granting protection against arrest to Prakash Pohare, Justice Bhushan Gavai issued notice to state government and directed Sonegaon police not to arrest him till April 18. On April 7, police...

BEIJING, China (UPI) -- Eleven of China`s major news Web sites endorsed a self-censorship proposal Wednesday to block pornographic and violent Internet content. Such sites as Xinhuanet.com, People.com.cn, China.com.cn, Chinadaily.com.cn, and Chinanews.com issued a joint statement saying they would participate in compliance with the 'Eight Honors and Disgraces,' a new concept of socialist morality...