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Indian journalist Palagummi Sainath has been named as one of the seven winners of the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Awards in recognition of his passionate reporting about the condition of India's rural poor. "In electing Palagummi Sainath to receive the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognises his passionate commitment as a...

Shahid Ahmed Khan, a senior journalist who made his mark as the PTI correspondent in Pakistan in the 1990s, passed away in Kolkata on Saturday after battling cancer for about two years. Khan, who was 48, was present at the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief's residence on October 12, 1999, when Gen Pervez Musharraf's troops encircled it and seized power. In fact, he was the first to report the...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Talk might be cheap, but Oprah is not, topping a list of the highest-paid television stars in the United States. Oprah Winfrey, host and supervising producer of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," earns an estimated $260 million a year, according to a list in TV Guide magazine's July 23 issue. Music producer Simon Cowell, the blunt and often contentious British judge of "American...

(Reuters) - Key events in former press baron Conrad Black's life and legal saga: August 25, 1944 - Conrad Moffat Black is born in Montreal to a wealthy brewing family. At age 14, he is expelled from a prestigious Toronto school for stealing and selling exams. He later earns a law degree and a master's in history. 1967 - Black buys a half interest in two Quebec weeklies for C$500. In 1969, he and...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Fallen newspaper tycoon Conrad Black has rarely backed away from a fight, locking horns with powerful adversaries including fellow media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. On Friday he lost perhaps the most important battle of his life when a jury in Chicago found him guilty of multiple counts of criminal fraud, related to allegations that he...

(CRN/IFEX) - CRNI is proud to announce the 2007 winner of the Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award: Jonathan Shapiro of Cape Town, South Africa. Every year, cartoonists around the world are threatened by terrorists, government officials or affiliated goon squads. For many, the experience is intimidating and traumatizing; for a few, it is one more reason to express truth to power. Two of Shapiro's...

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro is being threatened by both state and anti-state powers trying to muzzle free expression in Mexico and silence voices which expose their corruption and illegal activities. Lydia Cacho, 43, correspondent for CIMAC news agency and feature writer for 'Dia Siete' magazine in Mexico. Cacho, a journalist for more than two decades, has endured numerous death threats because of her...

Staying tightlipped can pay off if you're running for the "Closed Oyster" trophy -- a satirical recognition of the opponents of free press. This year, the prize went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian president received the annual award from Netzwerk Recherche, a network of German investigative journalists, for his ability to remain taciturn whenever a microphone is put in front of...

June 19 (Bloomberg) — Josh Rushing has gone from Marine Corps spokesman (the role in which he appeared in the 2004 documentary “Control Room'’) to Washington-based reporter for Al Jazeera, known in some quarters as Osama bin Laden’s favorite TV network. A profound conversion by most standards, though in his memoir “Mission Al Jazeera'’ Rushing argues it was a natural progression. A Texan who...

(IPA/IFEX) - Geneva, Cape Town, 15 June 2007 - Publisher Trevor Ncube of Zimbabwe today received the 2007 IPA Freedom Prize for his exemplary courage in upholding freedom of expression. The murdered authors and journalists Hrant Dink of Turkey and Anna Politkovskaya of Russia also received a special prize. Rahil Dink, Hrant Dink's widow, spoke in Cape Town in memory of her late husband at the...