MIDEAST: Telling Film Floats Between Art and the Actual

An Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, Israel's 'Ajami', is a tragic, yet realistic, pointer to the multi-layered conflict of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians.

CHILE: Stop Treating Community Broadcasters as Criminals, Say Activists

Criminal law should not be used against freedom of expression, nor to silence community radio stations in Chile, say activists and journalists in response to closures of community radio outlets in this South American country.

MUSIC-BRAZIL: ‘Enchanted’ Guitars for Social Change

Perfectly in tune, in spite of the off-key world of Terra Encantada ("Enchanted Land"), a shanty town in this Brazilian city, the guitars of Daniel Sant'Anna's orchestra strike up the "Ode to Joy", played by children and teenagers who are looking for a way forward in their lives.

AUSTRALIA: Sydney Festival Offers a Glimmer of Human Connectedness

In a world beset with conflict, natural disasters and economic crisis, the 2010 Sydney Festival has been a celebration of human connectedness, bringing together 1,500 artists from 30 countries, who are performing to an audience of a million over a period of three weeks, beginning on Jan. 9.

FILM: Saving Lives Amid the Chaos of War

The documentary "Living in Emergency" is as graphic as it is gripping, following doctors working in humanitarian crises as they face death, disease and despair in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

COLOMBIA: Chicha, Fashionable Survivor

Chicha, a traditional homemade brew produced all the way from Mexico to Chile since the days of the Inca, has largely been a rural drink over the centuries. But it is enjoying a new popularity in bars and restaurants in Bogotá and other Colombian cities, as a hip alternative to mass-produced beer.

BURMA: A Celebration of Life through the Arts under the Junta

The Burmese military spares nothing with its iron grip on power – not even art.

Q&A: ‘Cartoons Are My Way of Protesting against Burmese Junta’

He talks with his hands. They are in constant motion as he expresses a view, makes a joke, mumbles.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Thai Media Trade Fairness for National Security

When it comes to reporting about their neighbouring countries, journalists in Thailand’s mainstream media display a national security bias, often presenting a distorted view of reality and reflecting some prejudices against them.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Bringing the Rainforest to Copenhagen

As delegates deliberate over the extent carbon emissions will be curbed in the closing days of the U.N. summit here, the environmental ramifications of that agreement are likely to be felt in places far removed from the negotiating table, particularly among indigenous people on the front lines of climate change.

MEDIA-ASIA: Forget ‘Gender’

‘Gender' may not exist in all of Asia's lexicons, but the concept is not necessarily alien to the region.

CULTURE: Foreign Cash Makes Afghan Films

After the fall of the Taliban, the most widely recognised and praised Afghan film has been 'Osama'. Directed by Sediq Barmak, the 2003 production is the heartrending story of a young girl who disguises herself as a boy named Osama so that she might survive the Taliban regime. Osama received awards at both Cannes and the Golden Globes.

ASIA: Excitement, Fear Greet Changes in Media Landscape

The changing ‘face' of the media landscape in the Mekong region is eliciting both excitement and fear from observers and professionals alike.

ASIA: ‘Mekong Media Should Ask Tougher Questions’ – Editor

Countries in the Mekong region have indeed opened their borders and former foes become friends, but several of them are still ruled by authoritarian governments that put limits on media and other freedoms.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: Fighting Stereotypes of Slums ‘From the Inside’

A group of local residents from Villa 1-11-14, a slum on the outskirts of the Argentine capital, put out a magazine aimed at breaking down the stereotypes propagated by the mainstream media, which associate neighbourhoods like theirs only with drugs, crime and marginalisation.

CULTURE-IBEROAMERICA: Women MisPrized

"The judges are usually men, and they tend to prefer men's writing," Mexican journalist and novelist Elena Poniatowska, a perennial candidate for the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, said with a note of resignation in her voice.

CHILE: Media Empires Undermine Pluralistic Democracy

Chile is a classic example of the concentration of media ownership in too few hands, says Chilean journalist María Olivia Mönckeberg in her latest book "Los magnates de la prensa" (The Press Magnates). If the state does not exercise stricter regulation, democracy itself may be undermined, she warns.

BOOKS-US: Hawkish “Israel Lobby” More Bark Than Bite?

The Nov. 25 announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a "moratorium" on settlement construction brought very different responses from the Jewish American "pro-Israel" groups J-Street and the heavyweight American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), calling attention to the increasing divide within the American Jewish community.

ASIA: Artists Join Forces to Make a Difference in Mekong

Nouv Srey Leab, 24, could not quite contain her excitement about the chance to participate in the just concluded regional arts and media festival held in this capital, believing it was one welcome occasion meet fellow artists from other countries in the Mekong sub-region.

RELIGION-US: Will ‘The Road’ Be a Tool for Evangelism?

Two movies with doomsday scenarios highlight this year's pre-holiday releases - "2012", a special effects spectacular, is based on the Mayan calendar, whose end date - not to be confused with the end of the world, most scholars agree - is Dec. 21, 2012.

VIETNAM: Prospects of Total Facebook Blackout Loom Large

While much of the world is busy chatting with friends or posting photos via Facebook, Internet users in Vietnam are worried that government restrictions on access to this popular social networking site could soon evolve into a total blackout, assuming it isn’t so yet.