News

LI DATONG, the sacked editor of one of China's most influential investigative newspapers, laughed as he explained why the closure and pending reopening of the weekly Bingdian ( Freezing Point) added up to an incredible victory, despite his dismissal. While the fight was not over yet, he sensed a watershed. "This is a rare occurrence," he said. "It (the reopening of an axed newspaper) has never...

The last time The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News changed owners, in 1970, circulation was down, competition was up, and the papers' fate was in the hand of a distant corporation. Seems like old times. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., which publishes what are now the city's two major dailies, has the largest circulation and the biggest advertising sales among the 29 markets served by the Knight...

LONDON – Outspoken London Mayor Ken Livingstone may not be reporting for work Wednesday at the city's egg-shaped town hall on the banks of the River Thames. Unless he appeals successfully, he will sit at home, serving a four-week suspension for comparing a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard. The mayor – a veteran of many foot-in-mouth controversies – had argued he was exercising...

How worried should the print media be about the onslaught of the digital age? Gloomy? Excited? Bullish? A trio of heavyweight print executives, assembled to address the Judge Business School Media and Business conference in Cambridge at the end of last week, had starkly different opinions. Most alarmist and gloomy was Andrew Gowers, until recently editor-in-chief of the Financial Times, who...

HERE in Denmark the Muhammad cartoon issue continues to dominate the headlines. Politiken, the paper we get at home, has been running a special report on Egypt’s role in communicating the matter to other Islamic countries and international Islamic organizations, as well as warning the Danish government. Thus the paper has helped throw new light on the development of the affair, including to which...

NEW YORK - Ted Turner, the mercurial media visionary who founded CNN, said Friday that he wouldn't seek re-election to the board of Time Warner. Turner, who is 67, became a director of Time Warner in 1996 when the media conglomerate bought his cable networks company Turner Broadcasting Systems. He long held a prominent role in guiding Time Warner's affairs, but in recent years complained of being...

MINSK, BELARUS - A small independent newspaper in Belarus has reprinted the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that set off violent riots across the Muslim world, an editor said this week. The government condemned the publication and said it was not in line with its policy. The European Union's representative to Sudan said the controversy over the prophet drawings sparked attacks on foreign aid workers...

The International News Safety Institute (INSI) has pleaded with journalists to resist calls to carry guns in Iraq following the gruesome murders of three more news staff. The Iraq correspondent for Al Arabiya, Atwar Bahjat, cameraman Khaled Mahmoud Al Falahi and technician Adnan Khairallah were shot by unidentified gunmen near Samarra on February 23 as they covered the attack on the holy sites in...

At least three members of Iraq's security forces were killed Saturday in an attack on the funeral procession of an Al Arabiya journalist killed earlier in the week, the Arab television station and police said, according to Reuters. NOT SPARING EVEN THE DEAD: A grab taken from Al Arabiya television footage shows people carry the body of Atwar Bahjat, an Al Arabiya correspondent, during her funeral...

A possible mediator role Turkey was expected to play to resolve the cartoon controversy is now at risk over a news report published by some Danish newspaper on Namik Tan, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, which was later proven by Mr. Tan himself to be false. The Danish daily, Information, quoted Mr. Tan as saying that the Turkish government demands an officially-acknowledged apology from...