Asia

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has rejected a request by the China Newspaper Association to withdraw the Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to journalist Shi Tao, who was imprisoned for writing about restrictions on the media in the run-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Golden Pen of Freedom will be awarded to Shi at the 60th World Newspaper Congress, 14th World...

A newspaper editor was shot dead by an unidentified man in the southern Philippines town of Mindanao this morning. Reports said Hernani Pastolero, 64, editor of the weekly paper Lightning Courier was sipping coffee in front of his house in Sultan Kudarat town on Mindanao island when gunmen shot him twice in the back of his head on Monday morning. Volunteers carry the body of Hernani Pastolero, 64...

China's advertising expenditure via television, newspapers and magazines reached 386.6 billion yuan (49.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 22 percent on the previous year, according to the Nielsen Media Research. Television remained the most favored medium among advertisers, accounting for 81 percent of the total ad expenditure on the three key forms, said Nielsen. Advertisements for medicines...

CHINA'S Communist Party propaganda department has launched a points-based penalty system to try to rein in the increasingly muck-raking print media, a Hong Kong newspaper reported today. Media outlets will be allocated a dozen points that the propaganda department and the government media regulator can deduct one, three, six or all 12 at a time, the newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying. It...

NEWSPAPERS may change a bit to become more appealing to highbrows who seek more dialogue-driven communication instead of one-way education. According to a recent survey published by Edelman, a global public relations firm, newspapers received relatively low rates of trust among important people who have the power to make decisions in China. The survey was conducted by Edelman in partnership with...

LAN Chengzhang sat in a car outside the office of a mining company while a colleague ventured inside to make inquiries. It was his first month of work with his newspaper and Lan had decided to take on what anyone in the area knew could be a most dangerous subject: The illegal coal mines that proliferate in the sooty hill country of Shanxi province. Within minutes, a band of men armed with lengths...

SHANGHAI, China - The savage beating death of a reporter has shone a rare light on the corrupt, money-driven underbelly of Chinese journalism, where many reporters take bribes to write good news and extort companies to suppress their dirty laundry. President Hu Jintao has ordered a probe into the killing of China Trade News reporter Lan Chengzhang, who Chinese media say may have been trying to...

New York, January 24, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Chinese President Hu Jintao’s call for a swift and thorough investigation into the brutal beating of Zhongguo Maoyi Bao (China Trade News) journalist Lan Chengzhang at the site of an illegal mine in northern China’s Shanxi province. Lan died of a brain hemorrhage in Datong city hospital on January 10. Seven suspects have been...

BEIJING (AFP) - China's Internet population could overtake the United States as the world's largest within two years, but foreign dotcoms may have to wait much longer to profit from it, analysts say. While usage will pick up as computers get cheaper and the Internet becomes more attractive, local culture and habits constitute formidable barriers to entry for overseas businesses, they said. "I...

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has voiced its outrage at the brutal murder of a Chinese journalist who was beaten to death on January 10, in the Huiyuan county of the Shanxi province, and has called for a full investigation into the case. According to online news reports, Lan Chengzhang of Beijing's China Trade News was investigating a story on China's coal mining...