Europe - Central Asia

Criminal proceedings have been initiated in Dresden against two Leipzig journalists. The charges arise from articles written in news magazine Der Spiegel and in Zeit Online in 2008 on the “Saxony Corruption Quagmire” – a possible corruption affair that could have involved high-ranking members of the legal system. Ginzel and Datt were the authors of the Zeit Online report and co-authors of the...

The BBC's news coverage of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has almost doubled in the last two years, a report released by the BBC Trust has said. The broadcaster, however, was also found to still show a bias in favour of stories about England in some areas including health and education, where only eight out of 112 stories related to the three other countries. The latest research, which was...

UK's National Readership Survey (NRS) has appointed research specialist RSMB and UKOM/Nielsen to conduct a test fusion of online audience data with NRS readership data. The results of the test should be available for assessment by the NRS in early 2011. If successful, NRS and its stakeholders (the IPA, NPA and PPA) will then decide if the fusion of online audience data onto NRS should become a...

The editor of the Hounslow and Brentford Times has confirmed the closure of the 115 year-old UK newspaper. The title, an edition of the Richmond and Twickenham Times, published its last issue on July 23 along with a second edition of the weekly paper, The Chiswick Times. The editor, Helen Barnes, wrote on the newspaper's website, "After a lengthy review a decision has reluctantly been taken to...

A teaching assistant at the London School of Economics accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over claims that he had "groomed" a suicide bomber, the Press Association has reported. Reza Pankhurst brought proceedings at London's High Court over stories which appeared in the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard in January. His counsel, Lucy Moorman, told Justice Tugendhat that they falsely...

Elena Kostyuchenko, a reporter for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Yury Timofeyev, a reporter for Prague-based Radio Liberty, were arrested while covering the violent dispersal of environmentalists who had camped out at Khimki forest, north of Moscow, in an attempt to prevent part of it being torn down, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Kostyuchenko and Timofeyev were taken to a...

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has welcomed a landmark decision by the Constitutional Court of Serbia rejecting repressive amendments to the Public Information Act of Serbia. The Journalists' Association of Serbia (JAS), an EFJ affiliate, has won its appeal against the Act after its adoption by the Serbian Parliament in August 2009. In the ruling of July 22, the court found in favour...

The Newspaper Publishers Association in the UK has criticised the BBC Trust for allowing the BBC to bring out mobile apps. The BBC Trust decided against a "public value test" before allowing the BBC to begin the process of bringing out apps, and starting with the already popular BBC News app for iPhone. However, the Newspaper Publishers Association, according to Brand Republic, expressed its...

Iranian reporter Hamid Massouminejad is no longer under house arrest in Milan. Mohammadali Hosseini, Iran's ambassador to Italy, told the Iranian Students News Agenc (ISNA) that the Milan prosecutor signed the order of release which was also approved by the court interrogator on Monday. Hosseini announced that this did not mean that the file has been closed by described it as a "positive step"...

A far-left extremist group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the murder of a Greek investigative journalist who was gunned down in front of his Athens home last week, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). The group calling itself Revolutionary Sect sent a message to the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea, claiming responsibility for the shooting of 37-year-old Socratis Giolias. The group did...