New York, June 15, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists denounces the shooting of investigative reporter Andrei Kalitin, who had been working on a book alleging criminal dealings in Russia’s aluminum business. Kalitin, 37, was shot in the shoulder Wednesday evening as he was leaving his home to meet with a colleague, according to local media reports. He has worked as a special correspondent...
New York, June 15, 2007— A state prosecutor in Mali jailed a journalist for an article about a high school essay assignment in which the students were asked to write about a fictional sex scandal involving a president and his mistress. Seydina Oumar Diarra, an editor for the private daily newspaper Info-Matin, was questioned for more than three hours, charged with offense to a head of state, and...
A controversial private members' bill to exempt MPs and peers from freedom of information laws has failed to win the support of a single member of the House of Lords. Tory former chief whip David Maclean's Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill needed a peer to come forward to sponsor it by 5pm last night, but the support was not forthcoming. Opponents have hailed the news as a triumph for...
The new proposals set forth by the Swedish Department of Culture favor smaller, local papers. This could translate to an income loss of 5.5 million kronor ($763,000) for the major papers, Senska Dagbladet and Skånska Dagbladet. “…Control mechanisms will be introduced and support will be provided at a more local level,” said department secretary Martin Persson of the proposals. One such mechanism...
The BBC is to release a series of behind-the-scenes videos detailing how it compiles its news packages. The multi-media experiment will chart BBC reporter Ben Hammersley’s coverage of the run-up to the Turkish elections. Hammersley will post unedited footage of interviews shot for the reports on the internet along with pages of his research notes. The former Guardian journalist introduced the...
No decision has yet been made on whether to prosecute US troops responsible for the killing of an award-winning journalist near Basra at the start of the 2003 Iraq war, the British government has revealed. The coroner of the delayed inquest into the death of Terry Lloyd wrote to Attorney General Lord Goldsmith last October "to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators...
The Wall Street Journal will raise its weekday newsstand price from $1 to $1.50, starting July 16, the newspaper’s parent, Dow Jones & Company, said yesterday. The subscription price will not change, a company spokesman said, so more than 90 percent of The Journal’s buyers will not be affected. The weekday newsstand price has not risen since April 2001. In that time, newspaper costs have soared...
Ambika Bhandari, the editor of Samyentra Weekly, a newspaper based in Biratchowk (in the southeastern district of Morang), was forced to flee the district on 12 June after being threatened by Bikram Bhujel, the owner of a restaurant called “Don’t cross me.” In the issue that appeared on 12 June, Bhandari published an article saying the restaurant was a hangout for prostitutes. Bhujel immediately...
A leading New Zealand journalist has been detained by Fijian authorities at Nadi airport in the wake of the expulsion of the New Zealand high commissioner, Michael Green. Michael Field, the Auckland bureau chief for Fairfax New Zealand, was refused entry to Fiji when he arrived in Nadi on an Air Pacific flight from New Zealand. Mr Field who authored a book on Fiji's 2000 coup and has written...
Stockholm - A reporter who recently subjected Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to a wet practical joke at a film premiere faces possible charges but maintains her innocence, reports said Thursday. Reinfeldt was attending the gala premier of Pirates of the Caribbean with his two sons in May when a reporter hired by one of Swedish broadcaster SVT's production companies sprayed water on him...
