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Free expression groups from around the world gathering in Brussels February 20 at the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) conference pledged themselves to confront a "growing number of attacks against the media." "It's no news to anyone here that the war on terror has put freedom of expression under threat," said Christopher Warren, the International Federation of Journalists' (IFJ...

MUMBAI: The D N Nagar police station on Saturday arrested a reporter of this newspaper on a complaint lodged against her for an article in TOI despite an apology and clarification having already appeared in the morning edition (February 18). The reporter was later granted bail of Rs 5,000 by an Andheri metropolitan magistrate after the police did not press for custody. The article in the paper...

A journalist of the Imphal Free Press covering the Miss Manipur pageant Saturday evening was beaten black and blue by a commando of the Imphal East police station detailed for security at the venue when the scribe was trying to exit the venue. ALL BEAUTIES, NO BEAST HERE: Aircel Miss Manipur Contest 2006 under way February 18 at the Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre (BOAT) in Manipur capital Imphal...

The assault of a journalist by the police in Assam last week has been condemned by journalists both in the state as well as abroad. HOPING FOR A WAVE: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a function in Guwahati in November 2004. The attack on a journalist and the subsequent boycott of government functions by journalist comes as more bad news for Gogoi who has been...

Naxalite activities are making the Chhattisgarh government see red everywhere. Pushed on the backfoot over increased Maoist violence in the state, the government has decided one of the ways to control ultra-Left insurgency is by training its guns on the press. MINE ISN'T A RED HAND: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh after storming to power last year. Singh said in the state Assembly Friday,...

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 19 – Iran criticised its principal opposition movement on Saturday for charging that it was behind the recent violence over cartoons depicting negatively the Islamic prophet Muhammad published in European dailies. A coalition of Iranian dissidents, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), had accused Tehran of dispatching several clerics to European and Muslim...

The Danish newspaper that published the Mohammed cartoons said Sunday that it had not published an apology to Muslims in Saudi Arabian newspapers, but that these newspapers had simply republished an apology posted on its web site earlier this month. Full-page advertisements appeared in Asharq al-Awsat, which is printed around the Arab world, as well as the local al-Riyadh and al-Jazira. "Allow me...

Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has denied reports that it was behind an ad published in Arabic-language newspapers to apologize for cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked deadly protests around the world. Earlier, news agencies reported Saudi Arabian newspapers printed an apology on behalf of the Danish newspaper. The full-page advertisements appeared in al-Sharq al-Awsat...

A student newspaper at Canada's largest university is refusing to back down after publishing a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus kissing. The cartoon was published last Wednesday alongside an editorial addressing the debate on whether to publish controversial Danish cartoons that have sparked protest around the world Nick Ragaz, managing editor for the Strand, says the newspaper is...

A student newspaper at the University of Toronto will not be pressured into pulling a cartoon from their website of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus kissing despite demands from the Students' Administrative Council and the Muslim Students' Association, its editor says. "The cartoon is a sort of Canadian statement on religious tolerance," said Nick Ragaz, managing editor of The Strand, the student...