Controversies & Scandals

The BBC has defended the director-general Mark Thompson's decision to attend a cocktail party in India as he finalises plans to cut up to 2,800 jobs. Mr Thompson and three executives have jetted off to Mumbai for a lavish bash to celebrate the BBC's success in India. The trip is costing a reported £12,000. Next week, BBC employees will be given details of swingeing job cuts to be made as part of...

The Allahabad High Court has stayed the arrest of a senior journalist of a Delhi-based news channel Roy Tapan Bharati in connection with FIRs lodged against him and another senior journalist for their alleged involvement in suicide by a junior reporter in Noida. In a suicide note, deceased Priya Singh, a reporter in a Noida based news channel, had claimed that her promotion as an anchor from...

NEW DELHI: A court in New Delhi on Saturday granted bail to aspiring journalist Rashmi Singh, co-accused in the fake sting operation case involving a government school teacher into an alleged prostitution racket. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alok Aggarawal enlarged Rashmi Singh, 25, on bail on furnishing of a personal bond and a surety of Rs 20,000 each. "The accused Rashmi Singh...

As the Rugby World Cup is set to begin in France later this week, media restrictions imposed by the International Rugby Board (IRB) threaten full press coverage of the events. England's Mark Regan (left) tries to break a tackle from France's Jerome Thion (centre) and Raphael Ibanez during their Investec Challenge international friendly at Twickenham, August 2007. England's rugby World Cup squad...

Kolkata, Aug 23 (PTI): The media were barred from covering a high-level meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee at a five-star hotel here today. Though the state government's information and cultural affairs department had sent invitations to a section of the media yesterday, these were cancelled hours later. A statement said,...

Several reporters and their family members have sued Hewlett-Packard Co and some of its officers alleging the technology giant violated their privacy in a hunt for the source of boardroom leaks. The five lawsuits brought by Rachel Konrad, Dawn Kawamoto, Stephen Shankland, Thomas Shankland and Thomas Krazit seek unspecified damages, Reuters reported. Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia...

A Chinese reporter who fabricated a TV news saying that Beijing dumpling makers used cardboard as a filling, was Sunday sentenced to one year behind bars with a fine of 1,000 yuan for the crime of "infringing commodity reputation". The official Xinhua news agency said the journalist, Zi Beijia, was convicted after an open court hearing of "infringing the reputation of commodities". He was also...

Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, tried to run but found that he could not hide last week. He fled to the sun for a fortnight's respite and in his absence Beeb insiders queued up to criticise the way their boss had handled the phone-in crisis that has left the corporation reeling. It was gloves off against Mr Thompson in the house journal Ariel. BBC staffers were dismayed at the way...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - The English-language Bangkok Post newspaper must reinstate an editor who was fired for a controversial report two years ago on the construction of Bangkok's new international airport, Thailand's Labor Court ruled Tuesday. Sermsuk Kasitipradit reported in a front-page story _ citing an unidentified source _ that U.S. aviation experts told the Thai government the new airport...

THE BBC has suffered another credibility blow after admitting that it made up a Newsnight survey suggesting that most of Britain and Scotland's leading businesses were not in favour of independence. Presenter Jeremy Paxman had told SNP leader Alex Salmond that 'not one' of 50 firms, made up of 25 in Britain and 25 north of the border, supported the party's independence policy on a TV special shown...