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COLOMBO, May 2 (IPS) - "Press and freedom? In Sri Lanka?" was the incredulous response of one journalist when asked what he thought of celebrating World Press Freedom Day, May 3. "Keep my name out of this," was all he would further venture to say. That response summed up the near-petrified state of the media in this island country where a fierce ethnic civil war between Tamil rebels led by the...

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Once again, the slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya has served as a symbol of the kind of danger journalists around the world live with every day. "Journalists like Anna are on the frontline of human freedom," U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes told a conference in Washington on May 1. "Yet while her story...

In a historic March 1946 speech, Winston Churchill painted the stark image of an "iron curtain" descending across the European continent. On the far side of that Iron Curtain, a closed and repressive system of governance was rapidly taking hold, in which dissent was ruthlessly suppressed, economic life rigidly managed by communist authorities, and media used exclusively as an instrument of the...

Business 2.0, the technology-aware magazine published by Time Inc., periodically reminds readers of the importance of backing up computer files. A 2003 article likened backups to flossing — everyone knows it’s important, but few devote enough thought or energy to it. Last week, Business 2.0 got caught forgetting to floss. On the night of Monday, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed...

(MEAA/IFEX) - Pushing through radical media ownership changes was just one of many victories for a conservative government in the censorship of the Australian press in 2006-07. Extended ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation] phone tapping powers, the charging of two journalists for refusing to reveal their sources, and conviction of a whistleblower whose revelations sparked the...

(Globe International/IFEX) - On 3 February 2007, an appeals court reaffirmed the ruling delivered by a court in the village of Kherlen Soum, located in Dornod Aimag (province), convicting "Dornod" newspaper's editor-in-chief, B. Tuya, of defamation, pursuant to a complaint filed by Miss Mongolia 1994, G. Tuul. In "Dornod" newspaper's 10 November 2006 issue, an article entitled "Women-trafficking...

MEXICO CITY - Mexican journalists have grown impatient as more of their colleagues are murdered, kidnapped or threatened because of their work. Increasingly, the media have directed their frustration toward the office designed to provide them justice: the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists. Created amid fanfare in 2006 by then-President Vicente Fox, the office is now seen by many...

Reporters Without Borders condemned yesterday’s murder of young reporter employed by the daily Uthayan, one of the Tamil newspapers that has been most targeted by violence. Gunned down on his bicycle near the newspaper’s office in the northern city of Jaffna, Selvarajah Rajivarnam was the second journalist to be killed in a government-controlled area in the past 10 days. "The people who murder...

Hoffman Media LLC and Hearst Magazines have partnered to re-publish Victoria magazine, which ceased publication in 2003. The Birmingham-based Hoffman will operate the magazine, as well as additional media products and events under the Victoria brand, and will provide all editorial, production, distribution and advertising services. Hearst, a division of Hearst Corp., will provide trademark...

Yelena Tregubova, a former Kremlin pool reporter and author of several books about Russian political elite, has applied for political asylum in Great Britain, the Ekho Moskvy radio reported on Tuesday quoting Tregubova’s own statement. After the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya last year, Tregubova wrote an open letter to Western leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in which...