Americas

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the mistreatment of Sudanese cameraman Sami Al-Haj of the pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera by the US authorities at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre after he began a hunger strike on 7 January on completing his fifth year in US custody without trial. “Al-Haj has been held by the Americans for five years without being charged, in disgraceful conditions and...

The 1000-strong Boston Globe employees union is now being backed by labour unions and local labour in their protest against outsourcing of jobs to India by the New York Times Company. The New York Times Company, which owns the Boston Globe, had recently announced the elimination of over 120 jobs at the newspaper. Of these, 55 jobs in advertising and finance would be outsourced to India. The New...

Just when newspapers are talking local, here’s a research study which should make newspapers think again – 67 per cent of the respondents of the study never visited their local daily newspaper’s website in 2006. The number is down from 70 per cent in 2003, but up 3 percentage points from 2005. The authors, however, cautioned newspapers about interpreting users’ behaviour on these sites – “some of...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has backed new calls from Sudanese and Arab world journalists for the release of Sami al-Haj, a cameraman working for Al-Jazeera, who has been held for five years, tortured and accused of terrorism offences at the notorious Guantanamo detention centre in Cuba. He has never been charged or brought to trial. According to Reporters sans Frontières...

US newspapers that spend more money on their newsrooms will be able to make more money, according to a study released Wednesday, which also questioned the wisdom of the media industry's trend of cutting jobs to save costs. A woman exits the New York Times building in Manhattan in 2006. The Internet is causing something of an earthquake in the US media industry, which last year reported a nearly...

Steve Spendlove realizes that after last month's layoffs of most of the news-gathering staff at tiny KFTY-TV in Santa Rosa there will be less local coverage. The Clear Channel executive overseeing the station knows there won't be reporters to investigate local scandals, let alone do those fluffy woman-turns-100 features that make TV anchors cock their heads and smile at the end of a newscast. But...

A joint delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists and Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) said today it is alarmed about the lack of transparency in President Hugo Chávez Frias’ decision not to renew the broadcast concession of the privately owned television station RCTV. This week, as Chávez was inaugurated for his third term, the delegation examined the highly polarized press conditions...

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today repudiated a decision by Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to not renew the broadcast license of television network Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). Chavez made the announcement yesterday after accusing the network of supporting plots to overthrow him and engaging in subversive activities. The chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the...

NEW YORK: Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll today called on other news organizations, especially those that use AP services, to increase their attention on imprisoned AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by U.S. military officials in Iraq for more than six months without being charged. Saying Hussein “works on behalf of every news organization that receives news from...

NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The average number of monthly visitors to U.S. newspaper Web sites rose by nearly a third in the first half of 2006, a study released on Wednesday said, though print readership at some larger U.S. newspapers fell. The study, released by the Newspaper Association of America, underscores the Internet's importance to papers beset by falling circulation and advertising...