Citizen Journalism

The prospect of starting your own news site is more viable an option than ever in the current media climate. Traditional news organizations are plunging left and right, the tools for publishing are free and easy, and communities are finding a new desire to access and share information. In Berkeley, California, the circumstances were similar in 2009, which led a group of journalists to fill the...

A new platform for crowdfunded photojournalism which aims to build a community around projects has received more than USD 20,000 in backing, just over a week since it went live, according to journalism.co.uk. Some details: [ Link] Emphas.is works by inviting story proposals and an expenses budget estimate from professional photojournalists, to be reviewed by a board of advisers working against a...

One journalist was fatally shot and another wounded in Sana'a Friday when Yemeni security forces used live ammunition to disperse demonstrators from a central protest area, killing dozens of people. The death of photographer Jamal al-Sharaabi is the first confirmed media fatality in Yemen since political unrest began in January, New York-based pressfreedom group Committee to Protect Journalists...

Jamal Al-Sharaabi, a photographer working for the local daily Al-Masdar, was one of the fatal victims when government security forces opened fire Saturday on a peaceful demonstration in Change Square, outside Sana'a university, killing at least 30 people, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Aged 35 and the father of four children, Sharaabi is the fourth...

Four men have been arrested for the murder of an Al Jazeera journalist, and rebel officials claim evidence has emerged that Muammar Gaddafi's regime is sending undercover squads to carry out assassinations, the Independent has reported. The Independent was told that four men were caught in the city of Ajdabiya with evidence linking them to the death of Ali Hassan Al Jaber, who was killed near...

Unidentified gunmen killed Al-Jazeera cameraman Ali Hassan al-Jaber and wounded his colleague near the eastern rebel-held city of Benghazi in an ambush on Saturday, according to the Qatar-based satellite station. This is the first confirmed death reported in the Libyan conflict, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. The Al-Jazeera crew was returning from...

Seven journalists covering the conflict in Libya are unaccounted for, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which expressed deep concern about their well-being. The most recent to go missing is Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, a correspondent for London's Guardian newspaper, whose disappearance was reported today. Also, on Wednesday, three BBC journalists recounted a harrowing 21 hours...

Nearly a dozen gunmen stormed an independent radio station in Sulaimaniya's Kalar district on Sunday, vandalising the office, breaking most of the equipment, and confiscating the rest, New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists has reported. It is the second armed assault on an independent radio station in Sulaimaniya in a less than a month, according to news reports...

A British photojournalist was severely injured after stepping on a makeshift bomb in southern Afghanistan. Giles Duley, a freelance photographer associated with the Camera Press Agency in London, was on a foot patrol with Afghan and American soldiers on February 7 near the village of Sangsar, in rural Kandahar Province, when he stepped on a pressure-plate that detonated a hidden explosive charge...

Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has urged the authorities to immediately free cartoonist Kamal Sharaf, who is still being held despite a ruling by a special state security court on September 22 ordering his release. The press freedom organisation also calls for the release of reporter Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae although the same state security court ruled that he should...