Uncategorised

(AP) Tens of thousands of Lebanese _ men and women, Christians and Muslims _ shouted insults at Syria on Wednesday in an outpouring of anger as yet another assassinated anti-Syrian campaigner was buried. Lebanon was brought to a halt by a general strike called in mourning for editor and lawmaker Gibran Tueni, who was killed along with two bodyguards Monday in a car bombing, but neighboring Syria...

CAIRO -- In the explosion that killed An Nahar publisher Gebran Tueni in Beirut Monday could be heard the echoes of a new battle being waged in the Middle East. It is a conflict that pits the old guard of Arab politics against the young Turks of the Arab media. Tueni's assassination is a twisted testament to the growing influence of Arab journalism -- just as the anti-Syrian backlash it has set...

JOHANNESBURG, 14 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - International media rights body Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned an arson attack at the premises of a pro-opposition weekly in the Seychelles. The attack took place on Friday last week and damaged the printing press of the weekly newspaper, Regar. Léonard Vincent of the RSF expressed concern, saying it was the first instance of a physical attack on...

JOHANNESBURG, 14 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean authorities on Wednesday returned the passport of the country's only remaining independent publisher after seizing it last week. "The attorney-general's office has conceded that the seizure was unlawful ... the passport is with my lawyer," Trevor Ncube, the Zimbabwean owner and publisher of the Standard and the Independent newspapers in Zimbabwe, and...

France can put aside its worries about the effects of the recent rioting on tourism and travel to its country, according to a new study by leading media analysis firm Carma International. Global measurement company CARMA examined how leading US media were depicting tourism in France in light of the riots and found that the media's portrayal of the unrest was unlikely to hurt French tourism. Carma

Editors of The Weekly Observer were yesterday summoned and charged by the police for allegedly promoting sectarianism. The paper’s editor, Mr James Tumusime and the political editor, Mr Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, were also questioned for hours over a story they published on December 1, titled " Tinyefuza meets FDC over Besigye". Police said a reference in the story that Bahima generals were allegedly...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- When The Rendon Group was hired to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai with media relations in early 2004, few thought it was a bad idea. Though Rendon's $1.4million bill seemed high for Afghanistan, the U.S. government was paying. Within seven months, however, Karzai was ready to get rid of Rendon. So was Zalmay Khalilzad, then the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and now the...

China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Ethiopia have been the world's leading jailers of journalists in 2005, together accounting for two-thirds of the 125 editors, writers, and photojournalists imprisoned around the world, according to a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The United States, which is holding journalists in detention centres in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, rose to

BEIRUT: "We shall not be silenced; paying with your life is part of a journalist's job description," Gibran Tueni once said. "Anywhere in the Middle East, and Lebanon is no exception, a journalist has one of the most dangerous jobs, where messengers like Samir Kassir are targeted and get killed," the late journalist and MP once told The Daily Star, sensing the Lebanese media would fall victim to...

Damascus - Syria's official newspapers maintained silence on Tuesday about the second report on the United Nations investigation into the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafik Hariri delivered Monday in New York, which accuses Damascus of ongoing failure to cooperate with the probe. 'The report (delivered Monday) has nothing new,' was the single- sentence reaction in Al-Thawra government...