Ethics and Freedom

A Seoul court Friday dropped criminal charges against a television news reporter who broke the story on the spy agency's illegal eavesdropping on civilians during previous governments last year. Lee Sang-ho, a reporter from television station MBC, had been indicted for violating the country's privacy law by publicly revealing evidence obtained by illegal methods. In July last year, MBC reported...

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the detention today of Hangzhou journalist Zan Aizong. Authorities placed Zan under a seven-day administrative detention this evening after warning him to stop writing about arrests and injuries involving Christians protesting the July 29 demolition of a church, according to the Independent Chinese PEN Center. “The government has launched a...

In a country widely referred to as the world’s largest democracy, the Indian government has succumbed to mounting Israeli pressure and ordered a nationwide ban on the broadcast of Arab television channels. The Indian government’s ban on Arab television stations is in complete contrast to the friendship that Arab countries imagine exists with their neighbor across the Arabian Sea. It seems the ban...

Indonesia is far from unique in being a country in which journalists are routinely influenced by their sources or the subjects of their stories. Everywhere in the world, people have a vested interest in seeing that stories are reported in a particular way, or even reported at all. Everywhere in the world, writers and editors are susceptible to persuasion, whether it is overt or subtle. A shopping...

MUMBAI, AUGUST 4: Media firms face proposed changes to broadcasting rules that could limit cross-holdings and crimp consolidation in the world's third-largest cable TV market. The bill, likely to be delayed as broadcasters lobby the government for changes, would set limits on scale and expansion and bring the $3.6 billion television industry under one regulator responsible for controlling content...

AITARUN, Lebanon - We reached this demolished village by following a bulldozer with a Hezbollah driver plowing away the rubble blocking the road. Minutes after our convoy of five press cars rolled into town, women, children, elderly men and disabled people began emerging from the ruins, pleading for escape from the bombing. Their desperation to flee the war zone as the clock ticked down on Israel...

A group of journalists traveling together in southern Lebanon, including several photographers, helped rescue trapped civilians this week in two towns damaged by Israeli missiles. "[There were] far too many old people and children who simply couldn't make it across the rubble," said Polaris photographer Timothy Fadek, who helped rescue people at both scenes. "We simply carried them on our backs."...

NEW DELHI: The Government would hold a meeting with stakeholders on the proposed legislation to regulate the broadcasting media before going to the Cabinet, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told the Lok Sabha here on Monday. Terming as "uncalled for" the apprehensions that the fundamental rights of the media would be encroached upon, he said the legislation was...

The controversial Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2006 will not be tabled in the ongoing Parliament session after all. The Union ministry of parliamentary affairs has listed ten Bills for introduction during the sesion; the Broadcast Bill is not among them. The government's decision to pull the Bill off the list comes in the wake of the representations made by media owners to the information...

Muslims in UK blame Islamophobia on the portrayal of their religion in the media, a survey has revealed. An overwhelming 92 per cent feel this is either a very significant or significant problem. A significant number of the other respondents surveyed too think it is indeed a problem, with 44 per cent UK public and 40 per cent Jews saying so. THEIR STORY: It was striking that Muslims feel more...