Controversies & Scandals

After being tipped off, Vietnam police caught red-handed Sunday a journalist of a newspaper in Hanoi trying to extort money from a local business. Initial investigations showed Nguyen Hung Son, correspondent of the Hanoi-based Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep (Business Forum) newspaper, had coerced the Hai Van international transport company to offer him a bribery totaling US$10,000, otherwise Son would leak...

Spain's two largest newspapers, El País and El Mundo, have launched into a fierce row over their reporting of investigations into the Islamist train bombings that killed 191 Madrid commuters two and a half years ago. The outbreak of hostilities between the country's most influential dailies follows the publication in El Mundo of a series of interviews with a small-time Spanish crook accused of...

Embattled Hewlett-Packard Chairman Patricia Dunn resigned Tuesday in the face of trenchant criticism for ordering a controversial board investigation into boardroom leaks to the press. HP's probe into boardroom leaks dating back to 2005 sparked a media furore, as well as an inquiry by California's attorney-general that could result in criminal liability for identity theft and illegally accessing...

NEW YORK: Attempting to blunt buzz in the blogosphere about an alleged "Spy for Saddam," the Associated Press released a retort late Monday by Linda Wagner, director of media relations and public affairs, terming the charges "absurd." The AP statement explains the background. It follows. * All the information in a handwritten Arabic document from Iraq that some blogs claim to be evidence that an...

MIAMI - Ten South Florida journalists, including three with The Miami Herald's Spanish-language sister paper, received thousands of dollars from the federal government for their work on radio and TV programming aimed at undermining Fidel Castro's communist regime, the Herald reported Friday. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and wrote an opinion column for El Nuevo Herald, was paid almost $175...

OTTAWA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - One of Canada's top television reporters has been suspended from her job for praising the country's increasingly troubled military mission in Afghanistan, La Presse newspaper reported on Friday. Christine St-Pierre, a veteran Ottawa correspondent for French-language public broadcaster Radio-Canada, wrote an open letter to Canada's 2,300 troops telling them to ignore...

MIAMI (Reuters) - At least 10 Florida journalists received regular payments from a U.S. government program aimed at undermining the Cuban government of Fidel Castro, The Miami Herald reported on Friday. Total payments since 2001 ranged from $1,550 to $174,753 per journalist, according to the newspaper, which said it found no instance in which those involved had disclosed that they were being paid...

Taipei - A Taiwan newspaper said Friday it has barred one of its reporters from covering news events after he shouted at embattled President Chen Shui-bian to resign. The United Daily News (UDN) said it suspended and reprimanded Ting Wan-ming because he 'mixed up his political stand with his professional duty.' While Chen presented awards to business leaders Thursday, Ting held up a cardboard sign...

LONDON (Reuters) - A Fox News reporter, responding to accusations he misrepresented himself as a Vatican offical to an east London mosque used by suspects in a foiled plot to blow up planes, said on Monday he had identified himself clearly. Mohammed Shoyaib, imam of the Masjid-e-Umer mosque in Walthamstow, told Britain's Guardian newspaper that Father Jonathan Morris, a Fox News religion reporter...

NEW YORK, July 31 (Reuters) - Fox News has agreed to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, on behalf of former female employees who said a vice president routinely cursed and denigrated women in the workplace. The settlement, submitted for approval in Manhattan federal court on Monday, includes a total payout of $225,000 to four women...