Ethics and Freedom

The Australian libel lawsuit that sent shockwaves around the Internet world two years ago was settled last week. The defendant, Dow Jones Co., got off relatively easily, to hear a defiant editorial in Barron?s tell it. The company forked over just $150,000 to cover a "fraction" of the plaintiff?s legal costs, while "paying no damages and offering no apologies." But as the editorial acknowledged...

RSF has condemned a threat to the privacy of Internet cafe users in Karnataka state, southern India, where the governor is poised to pass new regulations forcing Internet cafes to provide police with a register of their clients' names and addresses. Similar measures are being studied in Maharashtra state. "Rules that are about to be adopted in Karnataka and Maharashtra states do not observe...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, has today welcomed recent steps taken by the Indian Government, which have meant greater press freedom for journalists in India. The IFJ welcomes the announcement by the newly elected Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of an Ordinance to repeal the Prevention of...

Thirty years ago, on August 9, 1974, the Washington Post ran what was then the largest front-page headline in its history: "Nixon Resigns." That date marked both the end of Richard Nixon's presidency and the beginning of three decades of debate about what role journalism played in uncovering the Watergate scandal that forced Nixon from office – and how Watergate, in turn, influenced journalism...

China is the worst violator of Internet freedom, says a report by Reporters Sans Frontieres, which also finds that Internet journalists in South Asia are vulnerable to frequent attacks because they lack the legal protection traditional media enjoys. The report, "Internet Under Surveillance 2004," examines the situation in 60 countries and zeroes in on China as the worst violator of online freedom...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation of journalists representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, welcomes yesterday's decision of the Supreme Court of India to stay the execution of arrest warrants for five senior journalists from The Hindu newspaper and the editor of Murasoli newspaper. "It was totally inappropriate for the Tamil Nadu Assembly to resolve...

Reporters Without Borders today called on the Indian authorities to rescind instructions issued to Internet service providers to block access to the "Kyunhun" discussion forum, which is reportedly linked to the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council, a banned separatist group in the state of Meghalaya. The organisation questioned the need to ban this discussion group and voiced outrage about the...

Aljazeera is standing by its star reporter Taysir Alluni, who faces charges in Spain of links with Usama bin Ladin's al-Qaida network. "This decision is extremely regrettable but we will continue our contacts and mobilise support to obtain Taysir Alluni's freedom," spokesman Jihad Ballout said in Doha on Friday. The spokesman made it clear that Aljazeera was in no doubt about the innocence of its...

The International Federation of Journalists today condemned the arrest by Spanish officials of an Al-Jazeera Television journalist for alleged ties to al Qaeda members in what it warned "looks like developing into an international witch-hunt" against Arab-language media. On September 5, Tayseer Alouni, an Al-Jazeera reporter who had worked as a war correspondent in Kabul for the Qatar-based...

As the war in Iraq has turned into a grueling occupation, the question of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction persists. To investigate that question, there would seem to be no better-qualified reporter on Earth than Judith Miller of the New York Times. Miller is a genuine expert on weapons of mass destruction or, in Washington parlance, WMD. She has written important books about Saddam...