Organisations

It was a project doomed to failure: a newspaper written, produced and sold by poor, “low-caste,” rural and barely literate women – in a local language. Now, it has won international recognition through the award of the 2009 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize. Khabar Lahariya (the name means “News Waves”) was launched in May 2002 and today the 8-page fortnightly newspaper, published in local...

The World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the leading international associations for print and digital news publishing, have merged into a new organisation, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). The combined new organisation will represent more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3000 companies in more than 120 countries. WAN-IFRA is dedicated...

Press freedom campaigner Robert Ménard has resigned as director-general of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, which he had headed since April 2008. Ménard stepped down on June 19 because the Qatari authorities wanted to restrict what Centre said. Other members of the staff have also resigned. “For several months we were an independent voice that condemned violations and had only one concern – the...

The Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) has been awarded by the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) for its role in defending media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) has announced on June 4 the selection of MADA and the Ambassador of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva for the first prize. It has confirmed in its...

Tunisian government efforts to force out the president of a critical journalists union is part of a campaign to eliminate independent media in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday. The campaign started on May 4 when a group of pro-government journalists and followers of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali prevented National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (NSTJ)...

Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) and Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel peace laureate, have been chosen as the winners of this year’s Roland Berger Human Dignity Award. This prize is awarded by the Munich-based Roland Berger Foundation (Roland Berger Stiftung), which was founded in 2008 by Roland Berger, emeritus professor of business administration and management consulting also...

Six of the world’s leading newspapers dedicated to sports have come together to form the International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN), to defend and promote the interests and freedom of the sports press. The founding members of the IASN are the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, El Mundo Deportivo and Marca in Spain, L’Equipe in France, Olé in Argentina, and Lance in Brazil...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has confirmed the new dates for its World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo, the global meetings of the world’s press, which will now be held in Hyderabad, from November 30 to December 2, 2009. WAN announced last month that the events, originally scheduled for March, would be postponed until later in the year due to the impact...

The economic downturn has forced the postponement of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) annual congress and forum, the largest annual international gathering of newspaper executives and editors, MediaGuardian.co.uk has reported. This year's annual conference for WAN and its related organisation, the World Editors Forum (WEF), was scheduled to take place March 22-25 in Hyderabad. WAN/WEF...

The American Society of Newspaper Editors is planning to remove "paper" from its name and expand its membership to include editors of online-only news websites and journalism educators. The society’s board of directors unanimously recommended these and other changes that will be considered by ASNE members at a meeting during the group’s convention in Chicago next April, ASNE President Charlotte...