MALAYSIA: ‘Muslims Angry at War on Terror, Not Cartoons’

Delegates at an international conference here entitled 'Who Speaks for Islam? Who speaks for the West', were inclined to blame the ferocity of reactions against the cartoon controversy, which gripped the world this past week, on the 'war on terror' in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MEDIA-SUDAN: Less Censorship – But Watch Out for Security Agents

Nhial Bol, editor of the 'Citizen', an independent daily in Sudan, says working conditions for journalists in the country have improved somewhat since the signing of a historic peace deal last year.

INDONESIA: ‘Media Curbs Signal Return to Suharto Era’

Civil society activists are warning that a series of amendments effected on the country's broadcasting laws, this week, are a step backward into Suharto-era media censorship.

MEXICO: Reporters Targeted by Drug-Related Violence

The most dangerous place in Latin America to work as a journalist is northern Mexico, along the U.S. border, where drug traffickers threaten, kidnap and even murder reporters with impunity, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

ASIA: New Media Arms Both Journalists and Activists

Jo Dongwon, who belongs to a South Korean activist group that broadcasts its own reports about trade meetings or Asian summits, is not trying to compete with international networks like the Cable News Network (CNN) in terms of reach, flash and cash.

MEDIA: Al-Jazeera Succeeding Under Pressure

Its foreign bureaus were bombed by U.S. warplanes, it is banned from reporting from four Middle East countries - and Al-Jazeera is only growing in popularity.

IRAQ: From Those Who Swear by Freedom

Journalists covering Iraq have run into some sort of balance of troubles.

SRI LANKA: Media Targeted as Civil War Looms Large

There was nothing unusual about the two police officers leaning languidly against their patrol car and watching a group of protesting journalists in Colombo on a cloudy afternoon last week. To all appearances, it was business as usual.

MALAYSIA: Nude Squats Story Backfires on Press Freedom

News reports based on secret video grabs of a woman forced to do 'nude squats' in police custody, which put the Malaysian government in a spot over human rights, have backfired on press freedom as it turned out that the victim's nationality had been wrongly identified.

MEDIA-US: The Freest Press Money Can Buy?

Amid undenied charges that the Pentagon is paying Iraqi journalists to write "good news" stories about the country's progress, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced a new international exchange programme for journalists named for famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and emphasising "the democratic principles that guided Mr. Murrow's practice of his craft - integrity and ethics and courage and social responsibility".

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Journalist Hit with Libel Charge after Exposing Paedophile Ring

Journalist and activist Lydia Cacho believes that the influence wielded by a powerful child prostitution and pornography ring is responsible for the death threats she has been receiving for months and her recent arrest on criminal libel charges.

MEDIA-BALKANS: It’s Dangerous to Tackle Taboos in Croatia

The host of a popular talk show on state-run Croatian Television (HRT), Denis Latin, and his aides received some 200 telephone threats over the course of two days, including threats against their lives, after airing a programme dealing with the legacy of 1991-95 independence or "homeland" war.

UAE: Arab Media Asks Tough Questions – of Itself

Arabs are no longer blaming external forces for giving the region and its media a bad name. As debates at the 'Arab and World Media Conference' revealed, they are also attempting to identify the deficiencies in their own systems and demanding remedies to overcome them.

RIGHTS-IRAN: Two Top Ministers Accused of Atrocities

Amid growing alarm over extreme views voiced by Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, a major U.S.-based international human rights group called Wednesday for the immediate dismissal of two of his top cabinet ministers for their involvement in past repression and atrocities.

MEDIA-IRAQ/US: The Bad News Is the Good News Is Fake

U.S. Congressional leaders who have been touting Iraq's new "free press" as a sign of progress in the troubled country are upset at the Pentagon's admission last week that it has been paying for "good news" stories written by the military and placed in Iraqi media by a Washington-based public relations firm.

NEPAL: King Cornered by Maoists, Political Parties

Communist Party leader Bamdev Gautam was hustled into a cafe to avoid skirmishes with police, Friday, as King Gyanendra motored past with an army escort but it seems Nepal's political parties have gained the upper hand during the monarch's three-week trip outside the country.

COMMUNICATION: Media Democracy Must Sprout From the Grassroots

Civil society must lead the democratisation of the media, an issue that was barely touched on at the recent World Summit on the Information Society, said participants at an international meeting in the Chilean capital.

RIGHTS: Thai Courts Still Defend Press Freedom

A handful of recent judgements delivered by Thai courts is helping to push the country's judiciary into a new realm of respect, as one of the only remaining institutions prepared to defend media freedom and journalists under siege.

MEDIA-NEPAL: Radio Faces the Music, Again

Eastern classical music has been playing across a wider than usual band of the FM radio spectrum in Nepal's capital, since Sunday night, when the government shut down the country's first community radio station for "encouraging terrorism".

SOUTH ASIA: Bhutanese Refugees Forgotten in Nepal’s Turmoil

King Gyanendra’s military-backed ‘royal coup’, on Feb. 1, has proven a major setback for the Lhotsampas (Bhutanese nationals of Nepali origin) fleeing the autocratic regime of the world’s other Himalayan kingdom.

MEDIA: New Network to Promote Journalism with a Gender Perspective

More than 100 journalists from 14 countries have started networking to find ways round censorship, give gender equality greater prominence in the media, and promote the use of non-sexist language.