COMMUNICATIONS: Internet – Ruled by the Many, or by Special Interests?

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) being held in Rio de Janeiro Monday through Thursday, with more than 1,500 people attending, is discussing issues that are not yet a concern for the majority of users, but are already having a major impact on their lives.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Intelligentsia Finds Ways to Beat Emergency Rule

Faced with a continuing news blackout and with street protests being met with police beatings and imprisonment, members of Pakistan’s civil society who oppose the ‘emergency’, imposed by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf a week ago, are finding alternative ways to express dissent.

MEDIA-BURMA: Keeping the Flame Alive Over Radio, Internet

International media interest in Burma seems to have cooled down after images of the violent dispersal of pro-democracy demonstrators were splashed on TV screens and newspapers late September. But exiled Burmese journalists are determined to keep the flame going over radio and the Internet.

CANADA: Upstart Paper Cracks Irving Media Monopoly

For more than two years, the Irvings - the 129th richest family in the world, with interests in energy, construction, forestry and transportation - owned every single English language newspaper and magazine in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

PAKISTAN: Media Muffled Under Musharraf’s Emergency

"I have the habit of saying what I have to and will continue to do so," Syed Talat Hussain, anchor of a popular current affairs programme on Aaj TV, says in an interview from Islamabad.

MEDIA-FIJI: Court Strikes Blow For Right to Information

Civil society organisations in Fiji have welcomed a High Court decision giving the media the right to publish a confidential audit report commissioned by the state pension fund.

CUBA: Remembering Baldrich Through His Lens

One of Ángel González Baldrich’s lifelong friends and colleagues at the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde once wrote that by a conservative estimate, the photojournalist took more than 70,000 photos and had around 10,000 published in different papers and magazines in Cuba.

Q&A: &#39In My Mind, I Haven&#39t Reached My Vision&#39

New York's Carnegie Hall was akin to a pilgrimage site in September when Sonny Rollins marked the 50th anniversary of his debut at the revered venue. Jazz musicians and aficionados who have drawn inspiration from the self-named Saxophone Colossus turned out in droves: Lee Konitz, John Zorn, Pat Metheny and Joe Lovano were all spotted, as were the rock star Lou Reed and his wife Laurie Anderson.

EUROPE/HAITI: Singing for the Poor

The Arcade Fire, a rock band based in Quebec in Canada, has made raising awareness and money for Haiti's most disadvantaged its top priority.

Q&A: &#39If Journalism Becomes Further Marginalised, Look Out, World…&#39

Shrinking newsrooms, declining sales and audiences, vanishing foreign correspondents, concentration of ownership, shrivelling papers...is journalism imploding? Can independent journalism survive?

POLITICS-THAILAND: Straitjacket Elections Has Army Stamp All Over

The first parliamentary election to be held in Thailand since last year’s army coup is generating excitement for the wrong reasons. Political parties, the media and analysts are up in arms over a raft of restrictions imposed on candidates for the Dec. 23 poll.

CHILE: Breath of Fresh Air for Community Radio Stations?

After a seven year wait, community radio stations in Chile are celebrating a draft law that would regulate and promote their activities, which the government of President Michelle Bachelet has sent to Congress. But they remain aware of the hurdles that still lie ahead.

EGYPT: Journalists Get Jail Sentences in New Crackdown

The government has stepped up its campaign against the independent and opposition press, with criminal courts delivering prison sentences to 11 prominent journalists within the last two months. While state prosecutors accuse the writers of "publishing false news", spokesmen for the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate have described the latest crackdown as a "war" on press freedom.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Bomb Blasts Add to Journalists&#39 Risks

When TV cameraman Arif Khan added to the list of over 140 people who died in the bombings that targeted the welcome procession for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, on Oct. 18, it highlighted the many risks that journalists in Pakistan now face.

DEVELOPMENT: Good or Bad, Globalisation Marches On

The phenomenon of globalisation is on the rise in several regions of the world not usually thought of as heavyweights on the international stage, according to the seventh annual "Globalisation Index" released here Monday by Foreign Policy magazine.

IRAN: Benetton Gets Lessons in Shock Advertising

When the pro-government ‘Iran’ newpaper ran a full-page advertisement for the United Colours of Benetton, it indicated official approval for the famed Italian clothing manufacturer.

EUROPE: ‘Participatory Democracy Can Resolve Crisis’

"Participatory democracy can be the answer to the European crisis," says Ségolène Royal, Socialist candidate in the last general election in France.

MEDIA: Citizen Journalism Opening Up Political Space in Africa

Anyone with a mobile phone can call a radio station in Ghana now to question a government minister about the promises he made election time.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Media-in-Exile Examine Strengths, Weaknesses

As Burma’s junta clamps down on citizen journalists in the wake of the brutal repression it unleashed on monks and pro-democracy protestors, the ‘media-in-exile’ are hard put to maintain the information flow on events in their country.

Q&A: ‘Being Silenced Is So Serious That the Reason Pales in Comparison&#39

A decision by the Cuban Radio and Television Institute (ICRT) not to broadcast several video clips by national filmmakers rekindled controversy about the government’s cultural policy and its effects on the media.

MEXICO: Most Dangerous Latin American Country for Journalists

"Journalist’s Murder Condemned", "Newspaper Editor Reported Missing", "Organised Crime May Lurk Behind Disappearance of Newscaster". Headlines like these appear ever more frequently in Mexico, the most dangerous country in Latin America for journalists to ply their trade.