Ethics and Freedom

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) voiced concern about detained Sudanese cameraman Sami Al-Haj of the pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, and reiterated its call for his release in the absence of specific charges after speaking to his London-based lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith. Arrested by the Pakistani army on the Afghan border in December 2001, Al-Haj has been held at the US detention centre at...

The Denver Post plans to reduce the size of its newsroom staff by about 8 percent, the newspaper told employees Tuesday. The Post has targeted a voluntary reduction of 25 positions out of around 300. "As of today, there are no plans for layoffs," said Post editor Gregory L. Moore. Unionized and management employees were informed of early-retirement and voluntary-separation packages, with payouts...

The Chinese authorities, who last month unexpectedly dropped a state secrets case against a jailed researcher for The New York Times, have started an investigation period that could lead to reinstating the charges against him by early May, his lawyer said Monday. The possibility of resuming the case undercuts speculation that withdrawal of the case last month was intended as a prelude to releasing...

«Imagine that you are in the year 1994. Your breakfast consists of substitute coffee brewed on the solar stove and you are reading your electronic daily newspaper with all the news which your home computer can hold» That is how the foreword of the classic book "The Network Station" ended, written in 1978 by two computer network specialists, Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff. Well, 1994 has...

ST. LOUIS – The publisher of a Spanish-language newspaper has been deported, ending a five-year legal tussle over her immigration status. Cecilia Velazquez was escorted into Mexico on Friday and will be barred from re-entering the United States for 10 years, said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency. Velazquez, 36, is publisher of Red Latina, a Spanish...

In a move that seems certain to force a showdown over what constitutes indecency on the airwaves, four TV broadcast networks and their affiliates announced Friday that they had united to challenge a Federal Communications Commission ruling that deemed language used in several of their shows indecent. CBS, Fox, ABC and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. filed notices of appeal in federal court in New...

With the smoke over the Danish Muhammad cartoons barely having cleared, a new development in the Scandinavian country has the potential to further fray Muslim-Christian relations in Denmark. The co-host of a popular new public television show created to debate religious and cultural differences has divided Danes with her decision to wear a headscarf on air. Some groups are even protesting to get...

AMMAN – The Jordanian Press Association (JPA) threatened to punish member journalists who visit Israel in violation of its decision to bar normalisation of ties with the Jewish state, newspapers reported yesterday. "The JPA council will inflict deterrent punishment on journalists who violate its decision that bans any form of normalisation," the group said. The JPA council was responding to local...

The News of the World yesterday abandoned its legal attempt to prevent the publication of photos of its undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood. The Respect MP George Galloway had successfully applied to overturn an injunction banning the publication of two photographs of the investigative reporter, who has come to be known as "the fake sheikh". Yesterday the tabloid newspaper decided not to appeal...

The owner of the newspaper Hawke's Bay Today was fined today over an article likely to identify the victim of a sex crime. The owner, APN New Zealand, editor and reporter were charged over a front-page story on September 13 last year about a man jailed for two years and two months for historic sex offences. Today in Hastings District Court police prosecutor Tony Rielly asked that the charge of...