Controversies & Scandals

The BBC was plunged into fresh controversy yesterday over faked phone-ins after an inquiry unearthed serious breaches in six shows including the charity telethons, Comic Relief, Children in Need and Sport Relief. Mark Thompson, the corporation's director general, ordered all phone-related competitions on television and radio to cease from midnight last night, while interactive and online...

The BBC suspended several editorial staff over the phone-in scandal today as Scotland Yard revealed the Corporation may face a criminal investigation. A BBC statement said: "We can confirm that a small number of staff have been asked to step aside from their duties whilst we review issues surrounding the incidents referred to yesterday. "We would like to stress that this should not be taken to...

A Chicago television reporter left her job after she was caught on video in a swimsuit at the home of a man whose wife disappeared two months ago — a story she was assigned to cover — raising ethical questions about her conduct. The video, posted on a rival station's Web site, shows veteran WMAQ-TV reporter Amy Jacobson wearing a halter bikini top and towel near the pool at Craig Stebic's suburban...

Beirut - A reporter at the Lebanese National Broadcasting Network (NBN) has been sacked from her post over comments she made about the recent assassination of MP Walid Eido , in Lebanon without realizing that her comments were being broadcast live. berri%20%20nasrallah.jpgSawsan Safa Darwich failed to notice that her microphone was on as she gave what was described as “harsh opinions” during the...

Four newspaper groups today agreed to pay substantial damages to a Birmingham man they falsely claimed was suspected of being involved in a plot to blow up transatlantic passenger aircraft using "liquid bombs". A series of articles in six different newspapers claimed that Abdul Rauf, the proprietor of a bakery and cake distribution business in Birmingham, was suspected of funding or of having some...

After being accused by Radar magazine of stealing an article, the Chilean magazine Cosas said it had been hoodwinked by a reporter and had withdrawn the issue from newsstands. Radar’s March/April issue cover article, “Toxic Bachelors,” depicted celebrities as cads; an article in the April issue of Cosas, “Solteros Tóxicos,” featured the same celebrities behaving boorishly and included what...

A Sunday newspaper's decision not to print a lengthy piece of religious writing as an advertisement has been backed by the Court of Appeal. The court threw out an attempt to sue the Sunday Star-Times for $5m. David Edward Coxhead and his House of David Healing Centre Trust had tried to sue the paper's publisher Fairfax New Zealand after it declined to print the full-page advertisement. The Court...

ISLAMABAD: Strongly condemning the show cause notice issued by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to Private TV channel, Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has termed it attack on electronic media. ARD has submitted adjournment motion in the National Assembly to discuss the issue in the House. Parliamentary Secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian Azhar...

BANGOR, Maine --A Bangor Daily News reporter has been suspended for five days for including material from another newspaper in a story she wrote without crediting the source. Sharon Mack included passages from a story published April 4 in the Christian Science Monitor in her bylined story three days later about the use of bees in Maine farming, said Michael Dowd, managing editor of the Bangor...

SEATTLE (AP) -- Hearst Corp. has been paying The Seattle Times $1 million a year since 1999 for the right to buy the newspaper first should it be put up for sale, according to documents released Tuesday. Hearst owns The Times' smaller rival, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and has been feuding with The Times since 2003, when The Times tried to dissolve a joint operating agreement between the...