Ethics and Freedom

Journalists under repression around the world tend to find that financial independence and stability are keys to resisting pressure and harassment. Peter Whitehead of the Media Development Loan Fund reports on how veteran independent journalists are sharing their expertise with the new targets of dictatorship. Although 2005 was the most dangerous year in a decade for journalists, with 63 killed...

The Pentagon said on Monday that an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press and held by the U.S. military since April was considered a security threat with “strong ties to known insurgents.” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there was sufficient evidence to justify the continued detention of Bilal Hussein, 35, who AP said was taken into U.S. military custody on April 12 in the...

After years wandering the world I am, at last, thanks to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), getting to know my own country. Since starting my first term as chairman in 2003, I have kept up a pretty steady programme of visits to editors and proprietors outside London. This has, for instance, taken me to Scotland 14 times and to Newcastle on three occasions. The PCC, based in London, must not be...

The contempt of court proceedings against several Croatian journalists before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are a new development in the history of the international courts that were created in the early 1990s to try senior officials suspected of war crimes or crimes against humanity. REVEALING MORE THAN CALLED FOR: The International Criminal Tribunal for...

NEW YORK - The U.S. military has been holding an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press since April, and the agency asked Sunday that he either be charged or released. Bilal Hussein, 35, was taken into U.S. military custody on April 12 in the Iraqi city of Ramadi and has been held since then without charge, AP said. “Bilal Hussein has been held in violation of Iraqi law and in...

Srinagar: The Chief Justice J&K High Court on Wednesday heard the arguments in the case filed by Ghulam Nabi Shaida, Editor of local Urdu daily “Wadi Ki Awaz” against Chandan Mitra, Editor of New Delhi-based daily “The Pioneer” and another case seeking transfer of the petition filed by Mitra against Shaida before the High Court at Jammu. On the last date of hearing, the counsel appearing for Mitra...

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the contempt of court citation against a freelance journalist who is refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating an anarchists' protest he videotaped. A federal grand jury subpoenaed Joshua Wolf to acquire the 30 minutes of unpublished material, but he refused and was ordered jailed Aug. 1. He was released a month later as he appealed his case...

A U.N. tribunal charged a Croat journalist with contempt of court on Monday for revealing the names of two witnesses who testified in a war crimes case. Freelance journalist Domagoj Margetic named the protected witnesses from the trial of General Tihomir Blaskic on his personal Web site in July and August of this year, the tribunal said in a statement. The U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia...

New Delhi: Law Minister H. R. Bhardwaj on Saturday defended the role of the media in highlighting the lapses of the prosecution and thereby ensuring that the "rule of law" prevailed in the country. Asserting that the country had a vibrant democratic system with a highly independent judiciary, the Minister rejected the charge that "trial by media" in important cases tended to influence the judges...

New Delhi: The 17th Law Commission has made recommendations to the Centre to enact a law to prevent the media from reporting anything prejudicial to the rights of the accused in criminal cases from the time of arrest, during investigation and trial. The subject "Trial by Media: Free Speech vs. Fair Trial Under Criminal Procedure (Amendments to the Contempt of Court Act, 1971)" was taken up suo...