State Control

Iran has lifted a ban on a leading reformist daily but closed down two weeklies. The Iranian government Sunday lifted the ban on Shargh which had been shut down last September by Iran’s press watchdog. An Iranian woman looks at Shargh newspaper, before the popular daily was shut down last September. Iran’s hardline judiciary has closed down over 100 reformist and moderate publications and websites...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has rejected a request by the China Newspaper Association to withdraw the Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to journalist Shi Tao, who was imprisoned for writing about restrictions on the media in the run-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Golden Pen of Freedom will be awarded to Shi at the 60th World Newspaper Congress, 14th World...

China's advertising expenditure via television, newspapers and magazines reached 386.6 billion yuan (49.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 22 percent on the previous year, according to the Nielsen Media Research. Television remained the most favored medium among advertisers, accounting for 81 percent of the total ad expenditure on the three key forms, said Nielsen. Advertisements for medicines...

Nearly six out of 10 journalists in Hong Kong believe press freedom has diminished since the territory returned to Chinese sovereignty. Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) members staging a protest. About 60 per cent of the journalists interviewed thought that self-censorship was more serious now than 10 years ago as evidenced by the recent tendency of the press to downplay either negative...

CHINA'S Communist Party propaganda department has launched a points-based penalty system to try to rein in the increasingly muck-raking print media, a Hong Kong newspaper reported today. Media outlets will be allocated a dozen points that the propaganda department and the government media regulator can deduct one, three, six or all 12 at a time, the newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying. It...

The rise of popularly-elected autocrats worldwide is presenting an alarming new model for government control of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has warned. These leaders stand for election and express rhetorical support for democratic institutions while using measures such as punitive tax audits, manipulation of government advertising, and sweeping content restrictions to...

Sudanese authorities have lifted the ban on independent Arabic daily Al-Sudani imposed on it after the newspaper violated a decree not to report on the case of a murdered journalist, Reuters has reported. The Al- Sudani newspaper, one of the leading dailies in Sudan, has had many problems with the authorities. Erwa's paper was closed down in Sudan under emergency law in 1994. It reopened last year...

NEWSPAPERS may change a bit to become more appealing to highbrows who seek more dialogue-driven communication instead of one-way education. According to a recent survey published by Edelman, a global public relations firm, newspapers received relatively low rates of trust among important people who have the power to make decisions in China. The survey was conducted by Edelman in partnership with...

LAN Chengzhang sat in a car outside the office of a mining company while a colleague ventured inside to make inquiries. It was his first month of work with his newspaper and Lan had decided to take on what anyone in the area knew could be a most dangerous subject: The illegal coal mines that proliferate in the sooty hill country of Shanxi province. Within minutes, a band of men armed with lengths...

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the indefinite closure today of an independent Sudanese daily for publishing an article about the beheading of an editor last September. A state prosecutor imposed an immediate ban on the prominent Arabic-language Al-Sudani which carried an article on January 31 discussing the murder of Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the private daily...