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SIXTY-FOUR years ago, the governments of Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Congress replied in kind later that same afternoon. The government had been quietly preparing for modern war, but once it arrived few understood the demands it would make on American society. At some point on that day, President Roosevelt told press adviser Stephen Early that the government needed to...

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the censorship of Folha Online ( www.folha.uol.com.br/), the website of the Folha de São Paulo daily newspaper, which was ordered by a federal judge on 9 December to withdraw 165 pages from the site that had details of allegedly illegal services provided by a Canadian firm of consultants, Kroll, to Brasil Telecom. "We deplore this judicial ban, which is...

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has announced that his government would restructure control over a number of state-controlled media outlets to encourage greater public participation. However, due to previous unsuccessful attempts to reprivatize a number of popular mass media sources, the president's latest initiative raises doubts about whether the restructuring would lead to the promised...

Prominent anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bomb explosion in Beirut Monday, a day after he returned from Paris, where he had based himself in recent months in fear of assassination. A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the blast, but many quickly accused Damascus in the slaying. Lebanese Red Cross workers carry the body of a victim on a

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the detention of journalist Hang Sakhorn on a charge of criminal libel, part of a growing government crackdown on freedom of expression in Cambodia. TOTAL HUNSANITY: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's recent border agreement with Vietnam has been criticised in the media prompting him to crack down on journalists. Many of the country's leading

Authorities in Yemen are resorting to both judicial and extra-judicial measures to rein in journalists. On Saturday last, a court in capital Sanaa ordered the suspension of the privately-owned Al-Usboo newspaper for three months and fined it Yemeni rial 30,000 ($160). The court also sentenced journalist Abdulwadud Al-Matari of Al-Rasid newspaper to a two-month suspended imprisonment. Both cases

Tajik authorities have ignored a second Supreme Court order to release jailed independent journalist Jumaboy Tolibov, according to a local Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) legal source who is monitoring the case. LOOK WHO'S TALKING: President Emomali Rakhmonov's government severely restricts freedom of expression. The sole publishing house for publishing newspapers is owned by the state and

On the face of it, Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) may have scored a facile victory garnering as much as 72 per cent of the seats in the monthlong parliamentary elections, but the real picture stays hidden from what these statistics may indicate. EYE FACTOR: Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak listens to a speech during an Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting in Mecca

Press freedom organisations have condemned Zimbabwe's decision to seize the passport of the owner of the country's last two independent newspapers. Trevor Ncube owner and director of Zimbabwe's two remaining independent newspapers and of South Africa's Mail and Guardian, was ordered to hand over his passport on Thursday when he landed in Zimbabwe at Bulawayo airport from South Africa. COLOURS OF

The students in my advanced reporting class are among the few students at Emory University who hold a newspaper (other than the campus semi-weekly) in their hands when they read it. The only reason they do is because I require them to bring The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to class, rather than access it online, and I give them occasional pop quizzes to make sure they're reading it. They don't...