ROMANIA: EU Gets a New Country, and a New Culture Capital

All seems ready in the central Romanian town Sibiu for a spectacular celebration of the country's membership of the European Union (EU) Jan. 1. From that day this town becomes also the culture capital of Europe jointly with Luxembourg for a year.

MEDIA: Women Fight Prejudice in Balkans

The end of communism and the wars of the 1990s changed life in the Balkans, but the new nations that emerged are alike in presenting women in outdated stereotypes.

MEDIA: Cartoons Cast a Long Shadow in Yemen

Long after the cartoons controversy died down in Denmark and around the world, it continues to hover above media in Yemen. Journalists are fighting the government over prison sentences handed down to editors who republished the cartoons in some form.

MEDIA: IPS Honours Annan’s Four Decades of Service

When Kofi Annan leaves the United Nations next week after an eventful 10-year tenure as secretary-general, there will be one prized possession he says he will virtually hand-carry: the Inter Press Service (IPS) International Achievement Award 2006.

RIGHTS-ASIA: ‘Internet Pushing Real Time Porn’

In the lengthening vocabulary that describes child abuse, 'streaming' now defines the formidable challenge faced by child rights activists campaigning to stop children from being trapped into the sex trade over the Internet.

CHINA: Reading the Lessons of History – Selectively

Poised to become the world's next superpower, China has begun examining the rise and fall of other great nations in the hope of drawing lessons from their histories. There is one chapter that is being skipped though-China's own.

POLITICS-US: Reporter Summoned to Testify Against War Resister

The U.S. military subpoenaed an independent journalist Thursday, demanding she testify as a witness for the prosecution of First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to be court-marshaled for refusing to serve in Iraq.

POLITICS-US: Losing Arab Allies’ Hearts and Minds

Attitudes towards the United States reached new lows through most of the Arab world over the past year, according to the findings of a major new survey of five Arab countries released here Thursday by Zogby International and the Arab American Institute (AAI).

MEDIA-CROATIA: Journalists Suspended over Some Old Quotes

A new debate has broken out in Croatia over freedom of expression after two editors with the state television were suspended for airing a clip from an old speech by President Stipe Mesic.

MEDIA-AFGHANISTAN: Speaking Up Against Domestic Violence

In Afghanistan's pervasive culture of violence, women and girls are powerless to resist being traded to settle family disputes and debts; rape and abduction; and forced marriages. Violence is widely tolerated by the community.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: Journalists for Gender PAR-ity

Argentina's first national network of journalists with a gender vision intends to promote the enjoyment of full citizenship by women, and to point out the ways in which women's rights are infringed on a daily basis.

FIJI: Coup Leaders Gag Media

Fiji's leading daily newspaper and sole television station have suspended operations after attempts to censor their news by the military, which seized control of the country on Tuesday, ousting the elected government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.

MEDIA: Digital Radio Takes an Ambitious Step Into Africa

Broadcasters from across Africa will gather in Rwandan capital Kigali this week to propose new plans to bring digital sound to their hundreds of millions of listeners.

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Reporting the Truth Can Be Fatal

''I just reported the truth,'' says 38-year-old Dilawar Wazir Khan wearily, explaining to IPS over the telephone why he was kidnapped and tortured.

MEDIA-IRAN: Policing of Internet Will Continue

Iranian officials have scorned the labelling of this country by a journalists' rights watchdog as one of the world's 13 Internet ‘black holes' and said they will continue to protect what they claim are the morals of society.

MEDIA: South-South Communications Lag Behind Trade Flows

Vigorous expansion of trade between developing countries has created "a new geography of global trade," but communications have lagged behind this and other processes that have increased the gravitas of the South, participants agreed at a seminar in Brazil.

MEDIA-ASIA: Bush Irrelevance Showing

If the commentaries in East Asian newspapers on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on the weekend are a reflection of the region's mood, then United States President George W. Bush's visit is seen as lacking in relevance.

COMMUNICATIONS-ARGENTINA: Indigenous People On the Air

When the project emerged three years ago, it involved communication between indigenous communities within one Argentine province, but it rapidly grew into a larger network that broadcasts their voice from more than a hundred community and commercial radio stations in the north of the country.

ARGENTINA: Curbing Discriminatory Use of Government Advertising

With the backing of journalists and lawyers, an Argentine non-governmental organisation has launched a proposal for regulating official advertising, in order to prevent the arbitrariness with which governments reward media outlets that support them and cold-shoulder the rest.

ST. LUCIA: Media Groups Applaud End to Criminal Libel Law

For three years, it hung like an albatross around the necks of the people here, and especially the journalists.

MEDIA-BURMA: Exiled Cartoonists Deliver Darts With a Smile

They have completely different styles, but they are bound by a common goal - a free Burma.