International

Jailed Iranian journalist Abdolreza Tajik and embattled Somali news radio station Radio Shabelle have been awarded the Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) Press Freedom Prize for 2010. The award is given in associated with French retail chain FNAC. “This year we are honouring a courageous journalist, Abdolreza Tajik, and a beleaguered radio station, Radio Shabelle,” RSF secretary-general Jean-François...

The Guardian has launched a new section on its website dedicated to the reporting on global development. The new site will be jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Guardian News and Media. "The site will provide a new space for discussion and interaction on the biggest challenges affecting the lives of billions of people across the developing world, including poverty...

Even as the Indian home ministry issued an advisory urging the Indian media to help maintain communal peace and harmony in the wake of reports of a pastor in the United States threatening to burn the holy Koran, PoynterOnline.org has recommended guidelines on how to report the incident. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had issued a statement on Thursday saying, "While we await the action of the...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation should cancel the Obiang prize at its next session in October 2010, 96 press freedom and human rights groups have said in a letter to UNESCO Executive Board members. At its last meeting, on June 15, UNESCO agreed to delay the prize to allow for further consultation, following a public outcry from a diverse group of scientists...

It’s not just job-threatened journalists who are worried about the rise of low cost content generators like Demand Media and Associated Content. A group of established content syndicators are concerned enough by these companies’ growing clout–and what they see as diminishing content standards on the Internet-that they are looking to do something about it. Officials from the three-year-old Internet...

Iranian journalist and dissident Akbar Ganji has been declared a World Press Freedom Hero by the International Press Institute (IPI), in recognition of his decades of work defending freedom of speech and equal rights for all, in the face of continued harassment and imprisonment. Often called "Iran’s most prominent political dissident," Ganji spent six years in Iran’s infamous Evin prison for a...

Newspaper circulation worldwide fell just slightly in 2009 despite the economic downturn, and the impact of the global recession on newspaper advertising revenues appears to be easing, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has said in its annual world press trends update. The report showed that, contrary to conventional wisdom, newspapers remain a large and thriving...

A Madrid judge reissued arrest warrants Thursday for three US servicemen over the death of a Spanish journalist killed by American tank fire in Iraq in 2003. Judge Santiago Pedraz acted in response to a recent order from the Spanish Supreme Court that the case — twice shelved by a lower court — be reopened. Cameraman José Couso was one of two journalists killed when the US soldiers — members of a...

An Ipsos survery has revealed that 63 per cent of 501 online adults said they would prefer to access their newspaper of choice by buying the printed copy – while only 11 per cent would choose to access it digitally, according to a report in The Guardian. Of this 11per cent , most said they would prefer to pay a one-off fee for a mobile application, while 3 per cent of those surveyed said they...

The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from"Web site" to "website" (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow, according to Mashable.com Among the more interesting changes -- at least from a grammar and style standpoint -- are separating out "smart phone" as two words...