Ethics and Freedom

The Pentagon has brushed off a request from a journalist organization seeking more information and a decision on Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein continues to be held without...

NEW YORK — The Pentagon has brushed off a request from a journalist organization seeking more information and a decision on Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein continues to be held...

The Pentagon is brushing off a request for more information and a decision on an Associated Press photographer held for six months in Iraq without formal charges. In a letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, does not provide details about why Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein remains at a U.S. run prison camp. The letter repeats the military’s long...

Britain's highest court handed a protective shield to investigative journalism yesterday, when it ruled in a landmark judgment that newspapers and broadcasters who act responsibly and who are reporting on stories of public importance need not fear libel actions. The ruling in favour of a "public interest" defence for important stories brings English libel law more in line with that of the United...

VARANASI: Denied a chance to file his nomination for the corporation elections, a 40-year-old man tried to immolate himself here on Monday, allegedly after being provoked by a television channel reporter to take the extreme step as a protest. The condition of Ghurelal Sonekar, a vegetable vendor and a BSP worker, was stated to be critical with 90% burn injuries. An FIR was also registered against...

NEW YORK: Although The Miami Herald had no direct involvement in the ethical dust-up over paid broadcast appearances at El Nuevo Herald, its Spanish-language sister paper, Miami Herald staffers are being impacted in several ways. First, Executive Editor Tom Fiedler said he plans to institute a new policy requiring every Miami Herald newsroom employee to review and sign the paper's ethics policy...

BRUSSELS, Belgium: A European Union high court on Wednesday denied a German journalist's request for damages after the EU anti-fraud office gave information to law enforcement authorities that led to his detention. The EU's Court of First Instance said that handing over the information about Hans-Martin Tillack, who was a correspondent for German news weekly Stern, to authorities in Belgium and...

A Sudanese journalist specialising in the war-torn Darfur region has been held incommunicado for five days without charge, journalists said on Wednesday. Abu Obeida Aballah covered the Darfur peace talks in Nigeria, forging contacts with many rebels there. Since a May peace deal, signed by only one of three negotiating rebel groups, violence has escalated with a dozen aid workers killed and tens...

The Irish Times journalist who wrote the article that has left the Taoiseach in serious political trouble has refused to reveal his sources to the Mahon Tribunal today. The newspapers's public affairs correspondent, Colm Keena, has been summoned to appear before the tribunal today along with editor Geraldine Kennedy. However, he is refusing to reveal the source of his story last week revealing...

Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer who helped the Associated Press win a Pulitzer Prize last year, is now in his sixth month in a U.S. Army prison in Iraq. He doesn't understand why he's there, and neither do his AP colleagues. The Army says it thinks Bilal has too many contacts among insurgents. He has taken pictures the Army thinks could have been made only with the connivance of insurgents...