Ethics and Freedom

Hamas has decided to stop dealing with the Palestine Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) and has gone to the extent saying that it would be dissolving the journalists union, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has reported. Journalists are increasingly under pressure in the region as the rivalry of Hamas and the Fatah faction in Palestinian politics has led to the growing separation of Gaza...

A Tunis criminal court has dismissed a libel case against the editor of an online newspaper after the plaintiff decided to withdraw his complaint, delayed reports have said. Charges of defamation had been leveled against Omar Mestiri, the editor of the online newspaper Kalima, by Tunisian lawyer Mohammed Baccar that could have led to his imprisonment for up to three years. The suit was a result of...

The editor of an independent Egyptian daily is to face prosecution over his paper's coverage of the state of President Hosni Mubarak's health. Recent speculation about the 79-year-old Mubarak has included his hospitalisation, travel abroad for medical treatment and even death, prompting him to make an unannounced visit to an industrial zone near his summer home on the Mediterranean coast in a bid...

More Islamic countries have protested against a Swedish newspaper's publication of a cartoon that has been deemed offensive by Muslims. The Swedish government has, however, refused to apologise on behalf of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper. The Egyptian ministry of religious endowments Sunday denounced the cartoon as "irresponsible and offensive", according to Kuwaiti news agency KUNA. "Such an...

NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of criticism against the television sting expose on a Delhi school teacher, who was allegedly pushing her students into prostitution, broadcasters have defended the sting operation describing it as an extension of investigative journalism and an expose of a terrible crime. The broadcasters rejected the suggestion, as made by some, that the I&B ministry's proposed content...

Dubai: A court has dismissed a case against a local newspaper, its editor-in-chief and senior journalist along with a medical assistant from compensating a private hospital with Dh1 million, which was being claimed against defamation. Dubai Civil Court decided that the English newspaper, it's editor-in-chief and senior journalist didn't defame the hospital in the article which discussed the...

Channel Five is to become the first UK broadcaster to ban staged shots used in editing from news reports, in a bid to win back trust from viewers following the spate of recent "TV fakery" scandals. Other broadcasters, including Sky News and the BBC, are said to be looking to follow Five's lead, which will see it axe what its news editor, David Kermode, calls "rather hackneyed tricks". Kermode, who...

NEW DELHI: Curious why the messenger was being probed and harassed while the message seemed to have been lost, the Delhi HC has barred the Delhi Police from arresting two journalists who secretly filmed 11 members of parliament allegedly receiving cash to raise questions on the floor of the house. Seeking to know what action has been taken against the errant MPs, Justice S N Dhingra on Wednesday...

The Burmese junta is resorting to all methods possible to prevent journalists, including those working for the foreign media, from covering a wave of unrest in response to an increase in the price of fuel. “The military’s response to the wave of protests against price increases since 19 August has again been heavy-handed repression, intimidation and censorship of Burmese journalists,” Reporters...

Another cartoon row seems to be brewing up in – this time in Sweden where a newspaper has published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog. Iran summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires on Monday to protest against the publication of the “disrespectful" drawing of the prophet. Leading figures in Sweden's media industry have backed newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, which has published the cartoon...