International

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has called on democratic governments to take specific measures to protect freedom of the press in the face of widespread tightening of anti-terrorism measures. The WAN Board, meeting at the 60th World Newspaper Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, expressed its concern that following major terrorist attacks worldwide, tightened security and surveillance...

Newspaper circulations worldwide rose 2.3 per cent in 2006 while newspaper advertising revenues showed substantial gains, the World Association of Newspapers announced Monday. WAN said global newspaper sales were up 2.3 per cent over the year, and had increased 9.48 per cent over the past five years. Newspaper sales increased year-on-year in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, with North America...

A Chinese journalist serving a 10-year prison sentence for revealing his government’s orders to newspapers to censor their reporting of the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary, has been awarded the 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize from the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The award to Shi Tao, who was imprisoned after the American search engine company Yahoo...

As a Glebe Coroner’s Court inquest into the murders of cameraman Brian Peters and four other TV journalists in the East Timor town of Balibo on 16 October 1975 draws to a close, Reporters Without Borders today called on deputy state coroner Dorelle Pinch to use all possible national and international police and judicial mechanisms to arrest those responsible. The press freedom organisation said...

Canadian publisher Thomson Corp has agreed to buy Reuters for about £8.7 billion ($17.2 billion), creating the world’s leading provider of news and data for professional markets. Reuters Founders Share Company, which has the power to block a change of ownership at the 156-year-old company, backed the deal but it still needs regulatory clearance and shareholder approval, Thomson and Reuters said in...

Reporters Without Borders has hailed the progress being made in the inquest into the 1975 deaths of cameraman Brian Peters and four other journalists in East Timor but deplored some of the comments made to the Coroners Court in Sydney on 8 May 2007 by former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his defence minister, Bill Morrison. "We share the anger expressed by some of the journalists' close...

The Media Alliance has given evidence calling for greater uniform safety training for journalists at the NSW Coroner's inquest into the deaths of five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo, East Timor, in 1975. Deputy state coroner Dorelle Pinch is examining the murder of Brian Peters and four of his colleagues during the Indonesian invasion of Balibo. The official line has always been that the five...

Global newspaper circulation rose nearly 2 per cent in 2006 and the number of newspaper titles also increased significantly, according to provisional data revealed today by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Paid-for newspaper circulation went up 1.9 per cent year-on-year to more than 510 million paid-for copies in 2006 and the number of new paid-for titles grew to more than 11,000 for the...

Three nations in sub-Saharan Africa are among the places worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has found. Ethiopia, where the government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors, leads CPJ’s dishonor roll. The African nations of the Gambia and...

Reporters Without Borders today hailed the resumption this week of an inquest into the murders of cameraman Brian Peters and four other journalists 32 years ago in East Timor, saying it hoped every aspect of their deaths would be clarified and insisting that it was not too late for those responsible to be punished. After suspending hearings for two months, a Sydney coroner resumed the inquest...