News

New York-based press freedom group The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned ongoing attacks, threats, and intimidation against journalists and news outlets covering the bloody political standoff in Ivory Coast. The government and supporters of incumbent ruler Laurent Gbagbo have been targeting newspapers critical of Gbagbo while rebel fighters backing his UN-backed rival Alassane...

For the past two weeks, NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, has covered a triple disaster, appraising the damage with the help of 14 helicopters, 67 broadcasting vans and virtually no adjectives. Its anchors do not use certain words that might make a catastrophe feel like a catastrophe. “Massive” is prohibited. Same with “severe.” NHK gives its cub reporters an earthquake and tsunami coverage manual...

Legal action has been taken by Portugal’s prosecutor-general Fernando Pinto Monteiro against Lisbon-based weekly Sol, its director José Antonio Saraiva and two of its journalists who allegedly infringed his “credibility, reputation and intellectual property rights.” The action, in the form of a private prosecution in a civil court on March 10, concerns an article published on the front page of the...

Two members of privately-owned Radio Shabelle were arrested Sunday in Mogadishu, while two other journalists have been held in the northeastern region of Puntland and the northwestern region of Somaliland for more than a week, Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. RSF called for the immediately release of all four journalists and a halt to their persecution...

Two Beirut-based Lebanese journalists working for Reuters television have been missing in Syria since the evening of March 26. The Syrian government also withdrew the accreditation of the Reuters correspondent in Damascus the previous day. Syrian authorities have been tightening security in recent days in order to enforce a news blackout on anti-government demonstrations and on the violence being...

The BBC Caribbean Service is making its final broadcasts, ending seven decades of programming for the region. The service is being shut as part of budget cuts announced by the BBC World Service in January. Excerpts: [ Link] BBC managers say they have had to make tough choices because of a 16% cut in UK government funding. But one critic called it a short-sighted decision, showing the BBC did not...

Many of Mexico's leading news organisations have agreed common guidelines on how to cover drug-related violence. Newspapers and broadcasters agreed not to glorify drug traffickers or publish cartel propaganda. They also promised joint action to protect journalists, at least 20 of whom have been killed since 2006, according to BBC News. Excerpts: [ Link] The accord defends the media's right to...

Arianna Huffington is to launch a UK edition of the Huffington Post this summer, as the US news and current affairs website recently acquired by AOL moves to expand internationally. The multi-millionaire, who sold Huffington Post to AOL for USD 315m in February, told the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit on Thursday that the takeover meant she could accelerate plans to hire journalists and...

On March 19, a large crowd in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, prevented Arsène Evariste Kabore and Issa Kafando, editor-in-chief and cameraman, respectively, of the state-owned Burkinabe Broadcasting Corporation (RTB), from covering a meeting between Burkinabe labour unions and the government. The Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent reported that the RTB crew were singled...

The Centre for Public Integrity is launching a daily digital investigative newspaper that will go live in about a month. The new product, likely to be called iWatch or Integrity Watch, will feature 10-20 original investigative stories per day about corruption, political ethics, corporate accountability, “truth watching,” and waste, fraud and abuse. Excerpts: [ Link] The nonprofit Centre for Public...