Languages
Thursday, October 22, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Press Freedom
POLITICS-US: Lawmakers Seek Probe of “Media Generals”
As U.S. television networks continue their silence about their use of retired military officers to "sell" progress in Iraq, members of the U.S. House of Representatives are calling on the Defence Department Inspector General to investigate the Pentagon-sponsored public relations effort.EUROPE: The Newspaper World Suffers Another Blow
The financial crisis in the French newspaper Le Monde, that led to an unprecedented two-day strike in mid-April, is symptom of a growing crisis in the print media in France, and in several other European countries.MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Caught Between State and Non-State Actors
"My captivity only brought honour upon me," is how journalist Suhail Qalandar sees his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers last year. He was talking with IPS over the phone from Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province.FIJI: Aussie Journo Expelled on Press Freedom Day Eve
Fiji’s interim government has come under withering criticism both nationally and internationally for the deportation on Friday of the Australian publisher of the leading ‘Fiji Times’ daily, Evan Hannah.MEDIA-ASIA: More Than Just Freedom
More than gaining the freedom to report on society’s problems Asian media must gauge it’s real contribution to the public‘s needs, especially at a time of increasing commercialisation.RIGHTS: Impunity Reigns in Journalist Murders
Over the last 15 years, at least 500 journalists were killed directly because of their work. But in less than 15 percent of cases have the perpetrators been brought to justice, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).RIGHTS: People Everywhere Support Free Media
Sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserted the individual's right to "receive and impart information and ideas through any media", it appears that most of the world's people agree, at least in principle.
Q&A: Is a Global News Agency of the South Viable?
When the tart-tongued prime minister of a Southeast Asian nation was once asked what the leading newspapers were in his country, he remarked rather cynically: "We don't have any leading newspapers because all our newspapers are misleading."
MIDEAST: Just The Place To Be, And Not To Be
Fadel Shana just had to go to the scene of the Israeli bombing. As a Reuters cameraman, that was his job. He wasn't the only one killed, but through his pursuit of attacks as they happen, he was always more at risk than most others.MEXICO: Murder of Reporters Highlights Indigenous Divisions
The airwaves of "Radio Copala, the Voice That Breaks the Silence" only cover a few hectares in an indigenous region in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. But since the murder of two of the station’s four reporters, they have reached across borders.
Q&A: "The Death Sentence Was Used As a Tool of Intimidation"
Journalism in Ethiopia has become an increasingly hazardous trade over recent years. A clampdown on the media in the wake of disputed elections in 2005 continues to resonate in the country, while certain members of the press have even found themselves facing capital punishment.
CULTURE-CUBA: The Times, They Are A-Changin’
Topics that are taboo in Cuba, absent from media coverage and missing in the political discourse were nevertheless present in debates at a congress of intellectuals who advocated a greater role for criticism in society, and more room for dialogue and participation.MEDIA-COLOMBIA: Unraveling the “New” FARC Announcement
Colombian and international media outlets reported Thursday and Friday that the FARC guerrillas had "ruled out" the release of Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt in an article issued after a French emergency medical mission to save the gravely ill hostage got underway. The problem is that the FARC statement is actually more than two weeks old.MIDEAST: This ‘Bombshell’ Took a Year Falling
A recent article in Vanity Fair magazine "exposing" a U.S.-planned coup attempt against Palestinian resistance movement Hamas last year has ignited a storm of debate about Washington's Middle East policies. Yet for more than nine months, details of the plot were reported in the independent Arabic press - and elsewhere - leading some observers to ask: where was the mainstream media?LATIN AMERICA: Newspaper Owners Take Aim at Venezuela
The midyear meeting of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which represents newspaper owners in Latin America, was overshadowed by the antagonistic relationship between the commercial media and the government of Venezuela, where the meeting was held.
MEDIA-INDIA: Bulletin Boards Keep Tibetan Exiles Updated
While the mid-March anti-Chinese protests in Tibet sent campaigners and sympathisers running to the Internet for news, or to post blog entries, Tibetan exiles in this northern Indian town turned to the lowly community bulletin board.POLITICS-KENYA: An Intractable Land Dispute Grinds On
More than a week after the launch of an army operation to flush out the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) in Mount Elgon, a district along the border with Uganda, the fugitive chief of the outlawed militia has reportedly urged an end to the campaign, but remained defiant towards government.SRI LANKA: Journalists Fight a Separate War
While Sri Lanka’s armed forces battle Tamil Tiger rebels in the north, sections of the country’s media are embroiled in a war of a different kind - a fight to pursue their mission as journalists.MEDIA-MALAYSIA: Bloggers On Opposition Benches
The presence of five bloggers on opposition benches in Malaysia’s newly elected parliament must be galling for the ruling National Front (NF) coalition, which was returned to power in Saturday’s general elections minus its long-held two-thirds majority.MEDIA-FIJI: Hold Firm Against Gov’t Pressure – Journalists Urged
Amid fears of a new clampdown on media, following the expulsion of Australian expatriate newspaper publisher Russell Hunter, journalists in this Pacific Island country are being urged by activists not to succumb to intimidation by the interim government.BALKANS: Who Knows What Is News
In the face of continuing threats, Serbia's B92 radio and television station has taken its logo off its equipment. Its offices now get police protection.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Journalism is dangerous work. Dozens of reporters and other media workers are killed in the line of duty each year. Hundreds more face threats, intimidation, and harassment as they risk their lives to let us know what is going on in war zones and as they root out corruption. In the Information Age, the Internet provides us with new ways to disseminate the news even as it poses new threats to press freedoms.
IPS Director General Farhana Haque Rahman was invited by UNESCO as a panelist at the World Press Freedom Day 2017 gathering in Jakarta, in the Plenary Session: Quality journalism: a public good for just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
